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EARLY  TO  BED 

AND 

EARLY  TO  RISE" 


'Twenty  Years  in  Hell  with 
The  Beef  Trust" 


FACTS,  NOT  FICTION" 


Roger  R.  Shiel 


INDIANAPOLIS,  INDIANA 

1909 


INTRODUCTION. 

There  are  many  important  questions  before  the  Ameri- 
can people.  Two  of  them  touch  in  some  degree  all  the  peo- 
ple. One  of  these  two  is  the  importance  of  government  en- 
couragement to  live  stock  raisers  to  induce  them  to  improve 
the  grade  of  their  stock,  in  order,  first,  to  make  stock  rais- 
ing more  profitable  to  the  breeder,  and,  second,  that  the 
people  may  get  the  very  best  that  can  be  produced,  espe- 
cially of  the  stock  utilized  for  food.  The  other  question  is 
the  importance  of  compelling  slaughterers,  packers  and 
butchers  to  be  honest  and  supply  to  the  peoj^le  as  first  class 
only  what  is  first  class,  and  not  palm  off  on  them  an  in- 
ferior grade  at  first-class  prices.  Added  to  this  question 
is  the  one  of  making  unlawful  any  combination  between 
buyers,  slaughterers  or  packers  for  the  forcing  of  prices 
upward  on  the  product  to  the  consumer,  and  downward  to 
the  producer. 

A  discussion  before  the  people  of  these  important  ques- 
tions ought  always  to  be  by  one  who  has  ample  knowledge 
of  the  subject  and  not  by  a  mere  theorist.  Anybody  can 
theorize,  and  theories  are  too  often  like  dreams,  having 
nothing  more  substantial  for  a  basis  than  a  bad  digestion. 
The  following  pages  were  prepared  by  Mr.  Roger  R.  Shiel. 
Among  live  stock  raisers  and  among  live  stock  buyers,  such 
as  the  owners  of  the  great  meat  shops  of  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, Boston,  Baltimore,  Chicago  and  Washington,  and 
among  the  packing  houses,  both  large  and  small,  there  is 
no  more  familiar  name  than  that  of  Roger  R.  Shiel,  better 
known  as  ' '  Rhody. ' '    For  forty  years  or  more  he  has  been 


ivilfe443 


4  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Helt. 

one  of  the  largest  buyers  of  cattle,  hog.  and  sheep  in  the 
United  States,  especially  of  high  gra'lj  stock.  He  never 
dealt  in  the  poorer  grades.  He  has  had  very  much  to  do 
with  inducing  hog,  sheep  and  cattle  raisers  to  improve 
their  stock,  and  has  been  an  ardent  preacher  of  the  doctrine 
that  only  high  grades  should  be  permitted  to  be  raised  by 
the  farmers  and  ranchmen.  He  has  earnestly  advocated  act- 
ive interference  of  the  government  in  this  matter,  by  fol- 
lowing the  example  of  Denmark,  France  and  other  Euro- 
pean countries. 

While  Mr.  Shiel  is  familiarly  known  to  all  live  stock 
producers  and  all  live  stock  buyers,  his  name  is  not  so  well 
known  to  all  the  people,  and  not  knowing  him  they  may  be 
led  to  doubt  some  of  the  startling  facts  he  now  gives  to  the 
public,  especially  those  in  relation  to  the  despotism  of  the 
Beef  Trust.  Hence,  it  is  proper  to  say  that  Mr.  Shiel  has 
spent  more  than  three  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  fighting 
this  gigantic  oppressor,  a  fight  he  carried  on  for  more  than 
twenty  years. 

While  engaged  in  a  business  where  he  bought  from  two 
million  to  five  million  dollars'  worth  of  live  stock  annually, 
Mr.  Shiel  has  found  time  to  take  an  active  interest  in  poli- 
tics. At  every  Republican  National  convention,  beginning 
with  that  of  1868,  when  General  Grant  was  nominated  the 
first  time,  Mr.  Shiel  has  been  a  familiar  figure,  and  he  has 
campaigned  in  Indiana  with  almost  every  one  of  the  great 
Republican  orators  who  have  visited  that  State,  including 
such  men  as  Allison,  Hawley,  Cullom,  Fry,  General  Coggs- 
well,  Hoar,  General  Gibson,  Sherman,  Foraker,  Bradley, 
Harlan,  Gen.  George  F.  Sheridan,  John  Finnerty,  John 
Scanlon  and  Corporal  Tanner,  and  has  always  been  highly 
regarded  by  those  men  for  his  sterling  worth. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  5 

Mr.  Shiel  began  life  as  a  farmer  boy,  as  he  tells  in  this 
little  book.  Soon  after  the  war  between  the  States  began 
he  entered  the  army  of  the  Union,  at  the  age  of  eighteen, 
and  remained  until  its  close.  He  fought  in  nearly  every 
battle  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  from  Shiloh  to  Ben- 
tonville.  At  one  period  of  his  army  service  he  was  an  or- 
derly for  General  Sheridan,  and  afterward  for  Gen.  Judson 
Kilpatrick,  and  those  two  gallant  officers  held  him  in  high 
esteem  until  their  death.  It  was  the  advice  of  General 
Kilpatrick  which  led  Mr.  Shiel,  on  his  return  from  the 
army,  to  abandon  active  farm  life  and  engage  in  commer- 
cial pursuits.  The  close  of  the  war  found  young  Shiel,  like 
most  of  the  soldiers,  with  little  ready  cash,  as  there  was 
but  small  chance  to  save  out  of  the  pittance  of  sixteen  dol- 
lars a  month.  Full  of  energy  and  of  confidence  in  himself, 
and  following  the  advice  given  him  by  his  friend.  General 
Kilpatrick,  he  invested  his  little  capital  in  the  purchase  of 
eight  head  of  cattle  at  Strawtown  in  his  native  county,  took 
them  to  Indianapolis  and  sold  them  to  such  advantage  that 
he  had  a  profit  of  $80.  Thus  he  began  his  career  as  a  dealer 
in  cattle,  hogs  and  sheep,  a  business  that  grew,  under  his 
intelligent  management  to  gigantic  proportions. 

All  his  life  Mr.  Shiel  has  been  a  sterling  and  loyal  son 
of  the  Roman  Ca,tholic  church,  but  has  never  been  a  bigot. 
His  heart  and  his  purse  have  always  been  open  to  every 
deserving  object,  and  there  has  not,  possibly,  been  a  church 
of  any  denomination  built  in  Indianapolis  during  his  more 
than  forty  years'  residence  in  that  city,  to  which  he  has  not 
liberally  contributed.  Every  hospital,  every  charitable, 
benevolent  or  educational  institution  has  found  a  liberal 
friend  in  him.     Very  recently  he  gave  $2,000  to  the  Y.  M. 


6  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

C.  A.  of  Indianapolis,  and  several  hundred  dollars  to  the 
Y.  W.  C.  A.  of  the  same  city,  and  to  Butler  University. 

I  mention  these  things  not  in  the  way  of  boasting  of 
what  Mr.  Shiel  has  done,  or  of  the  friendship  felt  for  him 
by  many  of  the  great  men  of  the  nation,  but  simply  to 
show  the  readers  of  this  little  book  that  his  statements  are 
worthy  of  credence  and  may  be  accepted  by  them  as  true. 
So  far  as  a  very  busy  life  would  permit  he  has  been  a  close 
student  of  economics,  and  his  studies  have  led  him  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  welfare  of  the  country  depends  upon 
the  welfare  of  the  producer  and  the  honesty  of  those  who 
supply  the  people  with  their  food  products.  Hence  he  has 
always  fearlessly  exposed  the  wrong  doings  of  the  packers, 
and  the  oppressions  of  the  Beef  Trust  that  have  made  those 
wrong  doings  possible.  He  is  always  earnest,  always  ardent, 
always  hopeful,  and  fully  believes  the  time  will  come  when 
the  strong  hand  of  the  government  will  crush  out  all  trusts 
operated  in  the  constraint  of  trade  and  give  all  the  peo- 
ple an  equal  chance. 

I  have  known  Mr.  Shiel  practically  all  his  life,  having 
been  bom  in  the  same  county,  and  served  in  the  army  with 
him.  For  thirty  years  I  have  known  him  intimately,  and 
have  had  personal  Imowledge  of  his  fight  against  the  Beef 
Trust,  and  of  his  untiring  efforts  to  promote  the  breeding 
of  the  highest  grade  of  stock  by  the  farmers  of  the  West, 
and  of  the  proportions  to  which  his  business  had  grown 
from  his  first  little  venture  of  eight  head  of  cattle  at 
Strawtown.  I  write  this  introduction  to  his  little  book  to 
bear  willing  testimony  to  his  worth  as  I  have  known  it. 

W.  H.  Smith. 


ROGER  R.  8HIEL. 


«         ,     Q    ^,» 


i      J      J  J^    :>     >      )  :> 


Biography  of  Roger  R.  Shiel 


I  came  from  an  old,  well  known  family  in  Ireland. 
My  great- great-uncle  Richard  Lalor  Shiel,  was  one  of 
the  best  known  men  back  in  the  early  days.  Anyone  can 
find  in  any  library  a  book  of  his  speeches,  he  having  been 
one  of  the  greatest  orators  Ireland  ever  produced.  He  died 
about  1835.  My  great-uncle^  Michael  Shiel  was  born  in 
Cork  county,  Ireland,  and  came  to  America  some  time 
early  in  1820.  He  first  settled  in  Pennsylvania  and  ac- 
quired the  title  of  General  from  being  connected  with 
militia  at  that  time.  In  about  1825  he  settled  in  the 
wilderness  of  Indiana  and  laid  off  a  town  and  postoffice, 
afterwards  known  as  Shielville.  It  retained  that  name 
until  recently.  It  is  now  called  Atlanta.  The  railroad 
missed  it  about  a  mile  and  named  the  station  for  Shiel- 
ville, Buenavista.  There  being  a  contention  between 
Buenavista  and  Shielville  about  the  postoffice  being  called 
Shielville,  the  name  of  the  town  changed  a  few  years  ago 
to  that  of  Atlanta,  and  the  same  name  was  given  to  the 
postoffice.  Shielville  is  situated  on  the  line  of  Tipton  and 
Hamilton  counties,  a  part  of  the  farm  was  in  each  of  the 
two  counties.  He  was  the  first  justice  of  the  peace  in 
that  section  of  the  country,  and  started  the  first  general 
store  in  that  section.  He  married  and  reared  a  large 
family;  his  oldest  son,  James,  died  a  few  years  ago  at  the 
age  of  about  ninety  years.  In  about  1850  James  took  his 
father's  place  as  justice  of  the  peace  and  continued  to 

(7) 


8  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

hold  that  office  for  a  number  of  years.  He  settled  prac- 
tically all  the  estates  in  that  section,  and  the  Shiel  family 
maintained  the  Catholic  Church  at  Tipton  until  it  has 
grown  to  be  a  very  large  one. 

My  father,  Patrick  Shiel,  was  the  oldest  of  his  father's 
children.  He  was  born  on  a  farm  near  Clonmell,  Ireland, 
in  the  county  of  Cork.  He  married  Alice  Casey  about 
1826,  a  native  of  Tipperary  county.  Both  my  parents 
were  born  in  1805.  My  "mother  used  to  tell  me  that  their 
parents  made  the  match  as  parents  did  in  those  days. 
There  was  considerable  emigration  at  that  time.  So 
father  sold  his  interest  in  tHe  farm,  or  rather  his  father 
took  it  and  gave  him  about  $3,000,  and  my  mother's 
father  gave  her  a  like  amount.  They  sailed  for  America, 
coming  over  in  about  forty-five  days.  They  had  one 
child  at  that  time,  John.  They  landed  in  New  York  and, 
like  most  people  who  have  money,  spent  a  large  part  of 
their  first  fortunes  in  sight-seeing.  They  then  went  to 
Pittsburg  for  awhile,  and  then  to  Cincinnati,  where  they 
remained  till  their  money  was  about  all  gone.  They 
were  both  well  educated. 

My  father  finally  hunted  up  his  uncle,  the  General, 
who  lived  at  Shielville  about  ten  miles  from  Strawtown. 
My  father  bought  a  small  tract  of  land,  about  thirty 
acres  being  clear,  with  a  log  cabin  on  it  in  which  I  was 
born;  shortly  afterwards  he  built  a  hewed  log  house  and 
plastered  it  with  lime,  a  new  thing  in  that  country  at  that 
time.  He  soon  got  to  be  a  contractor,  constructing  mill- 
dams  and  other  general  public  work,  but  was  a  poor 
farmer  and  neglected  the  education  of  all  his  children. 
In  fact  the  nearest  school  was  two  or  three  miles,  to 


With  the  Beep  Trust  9 

attend  which  we  had  to  go  through  a  dense  wood  and 
had  to  blaze  the  trees  to  find  our  way  from  my  father's 
house.  My  parents  had  twelve  children  born  to  them, 
three  of  whom  died  as  infants ;  there  were  five  boys,  John, 
who  died  in  the  Mexican  War,  James  K.,  who  recently 
died  at  the  age  of  sixty-nine,  myself,  Roger  R.,  William, 
who  died  ten  years  ago  and  Terrence  M.  the  baby,  who 
is  still  living  and  is  fifty-eight  years  old.  James  K.  and 
myself  and  brother  William  served  in  the  Union  Army. 
There  were  four  girls,  Ellen  and  Catherine,  who  are  dead, 
and  Margaret  and  Lizzie,  who  are  still  living. 

It  is  hard  to  get  the  ages  of  the  Shiel  family.  They 
are  like  women  in  that  respect,  they  don't  want  to  give 
their  ages.  My  great-uncle,  the  General,  has  two  chil- 
dren living,  but  they  do  not  know  their  ages,  and  do  not 
want  to  know  them.  He  had  four  sons,  James,  Thomas, 
John  and  Michael,  and  four  daughters,  Bridget,  Cathe- 
rine, Margaret  and  Victoria.  He  gave  all  his  children 
a  good  education. 

I  often  heard  my  mother  speak  of  the  Caseys  being 
a  fighting  family,  always  being  against  England.  A 
cousin  of  hers  has  recently  been  one  of  the  Irish  leaders 
in  Parliament  for  several  years.  She  was  a  devout  and 
earnest  member  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Every  night 
at  about  nine  o'clock  she  had  all  her  children  repeat  the 
rosary,  and  about  nine  o'clock  on  each  Sunday  morning 
she  called  the  family  in  and  had  morning  service  with 
^their  catechism.  In  this  she  never  failed.  At  that  time 
there  were  no  priests  nearer  than  Fort  Wayne,  which  was 
about  100  miles  distant.  I  was  two  years  old  before  I 
was  baptized.     There  had  been  no  priest  in  that  part  of 


10  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

the  State  for  more  than  two  years.  The  priest,  when  he 
visited  that  section,  always  stopped  with  the  General,  and 
celebrated  mass  at  his  house.  On  his  periodical  visits 
all  the  children  for  many  miles  aronnd  would  be  taken 
there  to  be  baptized.  My  mother  said  there  were  about 
fifty  or  sixty  baptized  when  I  was.  The  Shiel  family, 
with  very  few  exceptions,  have  been  loyal  to  the  faith. 

The  following  personal  estimate  of  me  appeared  in 
a  previous  pamphlet  edition  of  much  of  the  matter  re- 
produced here  over  the  signature  of  the  publishers.  As 
to  the  facts  I  would  state  them  myself,  since  they  are 
correct,  but  since  the  words  expressing  them  are  more 
appropriate  than  I  might  use  I  here  present  the  sketch 
in  its  entirety: 

''The  undersigned  publishers  of  this  'brief,'  or  pam- 
phlet, feel  that,  in  the  strictest  propriety,  they  owe  no 
apology  for  making  personal  mention  of  the  inspirer  and 
collector  of  the  very  valuable  information  which  fills  its 
pages.  On  the  contrary,  they  are  convinced  that  they 
would  be  derelict  were  they  to  fail  to  make  at  least  pass- 
ing reference  to  Mr.  Shiel,  and  especially  now  since  he  is 
in  South  America  on  his  vacation. 

' '  And  yet  what  to  say  is  a  harder  matter  to  decide  than 
is  the  question  of  the  fitness  of  saying  something.  For 
over  forty  years  in  Indiana,  Ohio,  Illinois  and  Kentucky 
the  familiar  phrase  ''Ehody  Shiel"  has  been  a  name  to 
conjure  by  in  politics,  in  business  and  in  the  high  order 
of  patriotism  which  characterizes  the  public-spirited  citi- 
zen and  the  brave  solder.  The  thousands  of  his  personal 
acquaintances  and  friends  who  have  been  and  are  among 
the  first  citizens  of  the  country,  from  the  days  of  Presi- 


With  the  Beef  Trust  11 

dent  Grant  to  those  of  President  Harrison,  President 
McKinley,  and  our  own  President  Roosevelt — these  are 
they  who  have  heard  and  yet  hear  of  Mr.  Shiel  as  'a  dia- 
mond in  the  rough,'  but  who  recognize  the  diamond  just 
the  same. 

' '  All  such  men  bow  before  the  unselfish  spirit  which  has 
animated  Mr.  Shiel  in  other  public  matters  as  well  as  in 
the  collection  of  the  material  here  presented  in  aid  of  the 
work  to  be  accomplished  by  President  Roosevelt's  'Com- 
mission on  Country  Life';  and  every  citizen,  whether 
on  the  farm,  in  the  workshop  or  in  the  counting  room, 
owes  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  our  "Rhody,"  not  alone  for 
the  deed,  but  also  for  the  will  with  which  he  sets  about  its 
accomplishment. 

' '  From  the  History  of  the  Republican  National  Conven- 
tion of  1908  we  take  and  subjoin  the  following : 

"  'Mr.  Shiel  was  formerly  one  of  the  largest  live  stock 
brokers  in  the  United  States,  but  now  is  retired.  He  was 
one  of  the  strongest  supporters  of  Mr.  Taft  in  the  Con- 
vention, and  was  always  a  picturesque  figure  in  the  Con- 
vention and  about  the  hotel  lobbies.  He  resides  in  Indi- 
anapolis, and  has  had  an  eventful  career.  He  was  a 
strong  supporter  of  Governor  Morton  in  1876,  of  Presi- 
dent Grant  in  1880,  of  President  Arthur  in  1884  and  of 
President  Harrison  in  1888  and  1892,  at  which  times  he 
was  a  delegate.  He  was  nominated  for  Treasurer  of  State 
with  Mr.  Blaine  in  1884  and  for  Treasurer  of  Marion 
•  county  and  the  City  of  Indianapolis  in  1892,  on  the  ticket 
with  General  Harrison. 

"  'He  was  born  at  Strawtown,  Indiana,  August  19th, 
1843,  of  Irish  parents,  who  came  to  this  country  from  Ire- 


12  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

land  in  1826.  He  enlisted  in  the  Union  army  at  the  age 
of  eighteen,  and  went  through  the  War  of  the  Rebellion 
honorably.  He  was  in  the  Thirty-ninth  Indiana  Mounted 
Infantry,  later  the  Eighth  Indiana  Cavalry.  He  was 
Orderly  for  General  Sheridan  around  Tullahoma,  was 
wounded  at  Chickamauga  on  Sunday  at  the  Widow 
Glenn's  house,  and  was  in  the  Rusaw  raid  at  Montgomery, 
Alabama,  ,and  the  McCook  raid  around  Atla,nta.  He  also 
served  as  Kilpatrick's  Orderly  around  Atlanta,  and 
marched  to  the  sea  with  General  Sherman.  He  was  with 
the  escort  that  went  out  to  meet  General  Johnson  the  day 
of  the  surrender  to  Sherman.  He  was  also  in  the  battle  of 
Shiloh  and  the  battle  of  Perryville,  being  taken  prisoner 
on  the  latter  occasion.  He  was  in  the  battle  of  Stone 
River,  the  battles  arround  Atlanta,  and  all  of  the  engage- 
ments in  which  Kilpatrick  was  engaged  on  the  march  to 
the  sea  and  through  the  Carolinas. 

''  'At  the  close  of  the  War  he  returned  to  Indianapolis 
and  engaged  in  the  live  stock  business.  During  his  life  he 
has  probably  done  business  to  the  extent  of  a  hundred  mil- 
lion dollars  in  Indiana,  Illinois,  Ohio  and  Kentucky. 

"  'As  he  expressed  it  to  the  writer  of  this  sketch,"  '  "I 
have  always  been  a  contributor  and  active  worker  in 
politics,  but  this  time  I  attended  the  Convention  largely 
to  meet  my  old-time  friends,  and  to  render  any  service 
that  I  might  toward  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Taft. '  " 

"He  is  a  member  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic, 
which  he  thinks  is  good  enough  for  any  patriot. 

"  'In  Indianapolis,  in  1882,  he  married  Julie  Elizabeth 
Pope,  who  has  borne  him  four  children — Alice  Julia,  24 ; 
Walter  Roger,  23 ;  Edna  Winnifred,  20,  and  Erwin  Har- 
rison, 16.'  " 


PREFACE 


All  my  manhood  life  I  have  been  dealing  with  farmers. 
Hence  I  became  greatly  interested  in  the  efforts  of  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt  to  better  the  conditions  of  the  farming  com- 
munity, and  I  took  the  liberty  to  address  him  a  letter,  com- 
mending his  efforts  and  pointing  out  some  ways  in  which 
I  thought  the  good  work  he  was  interested  in  could  be  more 
effectually  accomplished.  That  letter  he  referred  to  the 
Country  Life  Commission. 

The  Commission  replied  by  asking  me  to  give  them  some 
additional  information  along  the  same  line.  This  request 
reached  me  four  days  before  I  was  to  start  on  a  trip  through 
South  America  and  Cuba,  so  I  had  but  a  few  days  to  pre- 
pare the  data  asked  for,  but  I  complied  Avith  their  request 
as  best  I  could. 

On  my  return  to  the  United  States  I  found  a  number  of 
letters  on  the  subject  awaiting  me,  together  with  other  let- 
ters referring  to  oppressions  of  the  Beef  Trust  and  the  im- 
pure character  of  much  of  the  meats  and  provisions  they 
were  supplying  to  the  people.  With  these  letters  before  me 
I  thought  it  best  to  add  materially  to  my  first  reply  to  the 
request  of  the  Commission,  and  go  further  and  explain  some 
of  the  things  that  had  been  done  to  the  farmers,  and  also  to 
take  up  the  agitation  at  this  time  regarding  the  tariff.  In 
order  to  do  this  I  have  had  to  show  what  the  tariff  has  done 
in  helping  to  build  up  the  Trusts — all  the  gigantic  Trusts, 
more  or  less,  have  been  made  by  the  tariff.     While  I  am  not 

(13) 


14  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

a  free  trader  and  never  have  been,  still  I  cannot  see  why  the 
rich  should  be  protected  and  made  richer  and  the  poor 
neglected. 

Now,  of  course,  all  of  this  is  in  a  way  rambling,  as  I  have 
had  only  about  three  weeks  to  prepare  the  same.  There  is 
a  considerable  repetition  in  it,  which  you  will  readily  see, 
but  there  is  no  real  repetition  even  in  the  speeches  that  I 
made.  You  will  find  that  there  is  lots  of  new  meat  in  it, 
I  expect  at  a  later  date  during  the  summer  to  amend  this 
brief  and  put  it  in  a  book  form,  with  probably  as  much  as 
three  or  four  hundred  pages,  and  give  it  the  widest  circula- 
tion possible,  but  T  can  see  the  necessity  now  of  getting 
this  out  during  this  pendency  of  the  tariff  bill,  as  I  may  be 
able  to  turn  some  light  on  some  of  the  members  of  the 
Senate  and  House,  as  I  believe  I  understand  the  tariff  thor- 
oughly so  far  as  the  workings  of  the  Trusts,  in  this  par- 
ticular line.  I  have  been  dealing  directly  on  this  subject, 
and  many  members  of  the  House  and  Senate  do  not  appear 
to  have  much  real  knowledge  of  the  working  of  the  Trusts 
on  this  point. 

You  understand,  you  will  have  to  read  each  article  with 
great  care  in  order  to  get  intelligently  the  ideas  I  want  to 
convey.  I  want  to  particularly  call  your  attention  to  the 
Denmark  part,  which  was  obtained  by  me  at  considerable 
cost,  as  I  employed  the  aljlest  men  in  the  country  to  obtain 
this  information  accurately  for  me.  Also  note  what  I  have 
to  say  about  the  business  men,  and  what  the  business  men 
have  to  say  in  reply  to  my  inquiries.  It  is  well  to  read 
every  letter  in  this  brief.  These  are  the  very  best  men  in 
the  country,  and  in  the  next  book  I  expect  to  strengthen  it 
with  many  others  who  have  had  experience  dating  back  for 


With  the  Beef  Trust  15 

fifty  years  in  business  and  have  been  successful  in  their 
various  pursuits. 

I  want  you  to  read  what  the  Squires  have  done,  and  it 
would  be  well  if  every  school  in  every  township  of  the 
United  States  would  take  up  and  teach  the  life  and  works 
of  Richard  Webber  of  New  York.  He  was  one  of  the  great- 
est benefactors  that  ever  lived  in  this  country.  He  had  no 
place  for  anything  but  the  purest  of  foods  in  his  house. 
Neither  he  nor  Squire  ever  let  anything  go  out  of  his 
house  unless  it  had  been  thoroughly  cured.  I  also  want  you 
to  note  what  I  have  had  to  say  about  George  B.  Wilson  and 
his  balance  sheet.  This  is  a  very  essential  thing,  and  ought 
to  be  taught  in  the  schools.  They  ought  to  teach  economy 
to  the  young,  teach  them  a  way  to  know  whether  they  are 
economizing  or  not,  and  that  is  by  having  them  keep  a  strict 
and  accurate  account  of  all  their  expenditures. 

I  required  all  my  children,  two  sons  and  two  daughters, 
Lo  keep  an  accurate  account  of  their  expenditures,  and  make 
me  out  a  monthly  balance  sheet.  If  their  balance  sheet  was 
not  correct  I  deducted  $2  from  their  next  monthly  allow- 
ance. I  began  making  each  of  my  children  a  regular  allow- 
ance for  their  own  use  at  a  very  early  age.  My  oldest  son 
was  very  accurate  and  his  balance  sheet  was  always  cor- 
rectly made  out.  I  never  found  an  occasion  to  deduct  any- 
thing from  his  allowance.  He  went  to  Purdue  University 
and  after  a  course  of  three  years  graduated  as  a  Civil  En- 
gineer. He  was  a  thorough  student  and  applied  himself  all 
the  time  and  always  lived  within  his  allowance.  During 
his  vacations  I  made  him  more  liberal  allowances  and  he 
traveled  a  great  deal,  as  I  considered  traveling  to  be  a 
liberal  educator  itself.  With  him  it  was  always  get  up 
earl  v. 


16  Twenty  Years  tn  Heli. 

My  younger  son  was  hard  to  put  to  bed  and  was  hard  to 
get  up  again  in  the  morning.  He  was  not  as  close  and  as 
accurate  in  his  balance  sheet  as  his  brother.  My  two 
daughters  both  graduated  and  tried  to  live  inside  of  their 
allowance,  but  I  think  they  sometimes  worked  their  mother 
on  the  side.  They  always  made  a  very  correct  balance 
sheet.  If  every  school  would  teach  the  method  and  impor- 
tance of  a  balance  sheet  it  would  be  much  better  than  Ger- 
man or  French.  It  would  be  better  to  require  the  boys  to 
count  the  apples  on  the  trees  and  to  prune  the  trees  and 
vines  than  to  go  fishing.  Application  is  the  successful  rule 
of  life. 

In  the  stock  yards  where  I  have  done  business  there  were 
practically  none  of  the  firms  there  that  kept  books  ac- 
curately or  got  out  a  balance  sheet.  When  the  days'  work 
was  done  they  would  rush  out,  and  maybe  they  would  be 
50  dollars  or  50  cents  short,  or  even  in  their  cash,  some- 
times 100  dollars  or  100  cents  short  of  the  money  that  was 
paid  in  or  the  money  that  was  paid  out,  as  the  case  might 
be ;  and  of  course  there  being  no  balance  sheet  there  was  no 
way  of  telling  how  the  business  stood  at  the  end  of  the  day. 
I  have  seen  my  bookkeepers  w'ork  till  twelve  and  one  o  'clock 
at  night  trying  to  find  a  discrepancy  of  ten  cents,  or  even  a 
cent,  in  order  to  get  an  accurate  balance  sheet.  All  first- 
class  business  men  will  insist  on  having  a  balance  sheet. 

I  regret  that  I  have  not  space  enough  to  mention  each 
individual  who  has  furnished  a  letter,  and.  to  comment  on 
them. 

Note :  Thirty-five  or  forty  years  ago  business  men  were 
known  by  their  first  names — John  P.  Squire  was  known  as 
John  P. ;    Timothy  Eastman  as  Tim ;    Richard  Webber  as 


With  the  Beef  Trust  17 

Dick ;  Joe  Rawson  as  Joe ;  Isaac  Loder  as  Ike ;  Train  Cald- 
well as  Train ;  Simon  Muld  as  Si ;  Nelson  Morris  as  Nelse ; 
Philip  Armour  as  Phil ;  Samuel  AUerton  as  Sam,  and  Aid- 
rich  was  not  known  at  all  in  the  trade,  the  particulars  of 
which  you  will  notice  in  the  book. 

You  will  see  I  have  put  some  politics  in  the  book.  The 
fact  is,  legislation  is  practically  controlled  by  one  party  or 
another,  or  by  the  caucus  of  one  party  or  another,  which  to 
my  mind  is  a  thing  that  should  be  wiped  out.  A  legislator 
who  permits  his  party  caucus,  either  in  the  Senate  or  in  the 
House,  to  control  his  vote  on  things  that  he  knows  are  not 
right,  or  are  not  to  the  best  interests  of  the  community 
where  he  lives,  or  in  fact  for  the  whole  country,  should  not 
be  there.  May  I  ask  you  if  that  is  not  so?  That  is  why 
there  are  some  political  speeches  in  this,  and  why  I  am 
showing  how  the  Beef  Trust  had  me  twenty  years  in  hell. 
Had  1  seen  when  they  commenced  on  me  more  than  twenty 
years  ago  what  it  was  going  to  lead  to,  I  would  have  aban- 
doned my  chosen  line  of  business  and  gone  into  something 
else,  but  I  did  not  realize  their  strength  at  the  time.  John 
P.  Squire  and  I  talked  about  it.  He  left  an  estate  worth 
millions,  and  left  millions  that  the  Trust  or  anybody  else 
could  not  get  hold  of,  as  he  was  a  very  large  real  estate 
holder  in  Boston  and  East  Cambridge.  He  incorporated 
his  packing  house.  He  said  to  me  one  day  that  something 
might  happen;  they  would  want  to  break  that  house  also, 
so  he  fixed  it,  sometime  in  the  '90 's,  into  a  corporation,  and 
all  his  large  real  estate  holding  in  trust  in  charge  of  his 
•family — thereby  his  estate  could  not  be  impaired  by  the 
failure  of  his  corporation.  The  fact  is  the  corporation  was 
solvent,  had  money  enough  to  pay  off  everybody,  but  all  the 

[2] 


18  Twenty  Yeabs  in  Hell 

banks  doubled  on  him  and  made  a  run  on  two  of  the  banks 
which  were  large  lenders  to  the  Squire  people.  This  was 
at  the  time  when  the  packijig  house,  an  eight-story  building, 
was  filled  with  pork,  lard  and  provisions,  from  cellar  to  gar- 
ret, and  when  they  were  slaughtering  from  5,000  to  6,000 
hogs  daily.  The  Trust  knew  all  this  and  took  the  oppor- 
tunity to  attempt  to  crush  him,  and  it  did  force  his  com- 
pany into  the  hands  of  a  receiver,  a  man  of  their  own  selec- 
tion. The  Beef  Trust  finally  reorganized  the  company  with 
a  majority  of  the  directors  taken  from  their  own  men  and 
took  the  concern  out  of  the  hands  of  the  receiver.  Much 
more  can  be  said  on  this,  but  I  will  not  say  any  more  at  this 
time. 

I  want  to  say  that  if  I  have  said  anything  in  this  brief 
about  any  corporation  or  any  individual  that  is  not  true,  I 
am  perfectly  responsible  and  challenge  them  to  bring  suit 
against  me,  and  I  will  convince  the  public  by  substantiating 
any  statements  1  have  made. 

Note :  I  am  a  very  superstitious  man,  and  I  have  men- 
tioned in  the  brief  a  number  who  were  burned  to  death,  but 
in  the  next  brief  I  will  show  that  while  they  had  me  in  hell, 
I  saw  something  happening  to  each  and  every  individual  en- 
gaged in  the  conspiracy  to  put  me  out  of  business  and  break 
me  up.  There  have  been  all  kinds  of  suicides,  all  kinds  of 
divorces,  all  kinds  of  deaths  happening  to  the  chief  con- 
spirators against  me. 

I  have  seen  a  man  who  often  sat  in  the  same  pew  in  my 
church  and  at  the  same  time  was  feeding  from  500  to  600 
hogs  on  slop  it  was  said  he  obtained  surreptitiously  from  the 
penitentiary  of  which  he  was  warden,  the  slops  being  prop- 
erly the  property  of  the  State.     At  one  time  he  was  very 


With  the  Beef  Trust  19 

much  interested  in  securing  a  franchise  for  a  street  railway 
and  it  was  charged  that  a  great  deal  of  bribery  was  going 
on.  It  was  said  that  while  he  was  handing  out  the  bribery 
money  he  wore  a  mask  in  order  that  no  one  could  swear  to 
his  identity.  Another  man  who  was  engaged  at  the  same 
time  in  this  work  of  handing  out  money  to  the  bribed  wore 
a  mask,  but  afterwards  went  blind.  These  two  men  both 
died,  one  poor  and  the  other  it  was  said  worth  five  million 
or  six  million  dollars. 

Night  after  night  I  walked  the  floor  while  in  this  hell, 
and  had  two  doctors,  a  lawyer  and  a  priest.  They  thought 
I  was  going  to  die,  but  the  ''Lord  giveth  and  the  Lord 
taketh  away ;  blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord. ' '  My  health 
is  now  better  than  it  has  been  for  twenty-five  years — it  has 
returned  to  me  in  the  last  two  years,  since  I  abandoned  this 
fight,  and  since  they  put  me  out  of  business  at  Kankakee, 
Illinois  (I  am  not  as  old  by  ten  years  as  mj^  father  was,  or 
within  25  of  what  my  mother  was  when  they  died).  I 
have  not  tried  to  do  any  business  in  the  stock  yards ;  in  fact 
I  could  not.  I  intended  to  open  up  a  local  house  some 
place,  but  I  find  that  they  are  following  me  yet.  I  have  at 
least  twenty  years  of  the  best  part  of  my  life  remaining, 
so  far  as  money  making  is  concerned,  in  the  line  of  any 
business  I  may  enter  upon.  Of  course  I  have  made  money 
on  real  estate  and  otherwise,  but  for  six  or  eight  years  I 
was  confined  to  my  home  half  the  time  on  account  of  my 
health  being  all  broken  down  because  of  the  persecutions 
pf  this  damnable  Meat  Trust. 

I  want  to  call  your  especial  attention  to  Chief  Chemist 
Wiley.  When  he  dies  there  will  be  a  monument  erected  to 
him.     He  has  saved  millions  of  lives  by  educating  the  peo- 


20  Twenty  Years  in  Hei.l 

pie  against  adulterated  foods  and  liquors.  There  is  no 
greater  fraud  than  by  taking  one  barrel  of  whiskey  and 
making  twenty  barrels  out  of  it,  which  was  the  case  in 
Louisville  and  has  been  the  case  in  many  other  places. 
They  caught  a  Jew  in  Louisville  once,  an  Irishman  at  some 
other  place  doing  this.  The  Jew  and  the  Irish,  when  they 
go  wrong,  go  very  wrong.  Adulterated  liquors  poison  the 
mind  probably  more  than  adulterated  food.  The  Amer- 
ican people,  especially  in  the  x^ities,  are  getting  nothing 
in  the  way  of  high  grade  meats. 

Mr.  Smith,  who  has  edited  this  brief,  has  been  con- 
nected with  the  Cincinnati  Commercial-Gazette  as  its  cor- 
respondent for  many  years.  It  was  Murat  Halstead's 
paper  and  probably  the  best  in  Cincinnati.  He  has  written 
a  history  of  Indiana  and  also  Vice-President  Fairbanks 's 
history.  He  has  known  me  since  a  boy.  He  is  one  of  the 
best  posted  men  in  the  country  as  to  what  is  going  on. 

I  trust  I  have  made  it  clear  who  I  am  and  what  I  have 
done. 

Lew  Wallace,  James  Whitcomb  Riley,  Booth  Tarking- 
ton,  George  Ade,  Maurice  Thompson,  Charles  IMajor  and 
George  Barr  McCutcheon  are  all  "noted  authors;  they  were 
all  friends  of  mine.  Their  wTitings  were  all  fiction-dreams 
or  freaks  of  imagination.  There  is  no  fiction — no  dreams 
in  ' '  Early  to  Bed  and  Early  to  Rise, ' '  and  Twenty  Years  in 
Hell. 


THE 


Lack  of  Improvement  in  Agriculture 

LIVE  STOCK,  POULTRY,  ETC. 


A  COMPARATIVE  DISCUSSION  FOR  THE 
"COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE'' 

BY 

MR.  R.  R.  SHIEL 

of  Indianapolis 
AND   OTHER   WELL-INFORMED   MEN 


MR.  R.  R.  SHIEL 'S  LETTER  TO  THE  PRESIDENT. 

Han.  Theodore  Roosevelt,  President,  Washington,  D.  C: 

My  Dear  Sir — Please  note  the  enclosed  clipping  from 
the  Cincinnati  Enquirer  of  the  14th,  regarding  your 
*' Country  Life  Commission's"  session  at  Lexington,  Ky., 
which  will  explain  itself.  I  think  this  Commission  ought 
to  deal  more  particularly  with  the  mountain  country— cane- 
brakes  in  the  South.  Lexington  is  in  an  old,  well  settled 
and  established  country.  The  betterment  should  go  on  in 
the  interior  and  help  build  up  and  develop  there  where  it  is 
needed  the  most. 

From  observations  in  my  recent  travels  in  Kentucky, 
"Eastern  Tennessee,  Middle  Tennessee,  Northern  Georgia, 
Northern  Alabama,  Arkansas  and  Southern  Missouri,  I 
want  to  call  your  attention  to  a  matter  which  I  have  had  in 
mind  a  long  time,  and  that  is,  the  improvement  of  the  live 

(21) 


22  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

stock  and  poultry,  especially  in  the  South,  and  in  many 
States  in  the  hilly  and  mountainous  parts  of  the  North. 

I  spent  a  day  in  the  Louisville  stockyards  before  going 
South  and  I  saw  the  same  old  canebrake  and  mountain  cat- 
tle there — ^steers,  three  and  four  years  old,  weighing  500, 
600  and  700  pounds,  and  the  same  kind  of  sheep  that  I  saw 
during  the  war  and  which  we  used  to  forage  in  the  moun- 
tains of  Tennessee,  Alabama,  Georgia,  South  Carolina  and 
North  Carolina,  sheep  with  no  wool  on  their  bellies  and 
weighing  only  sixty  to  seventy  pounds. 

While  on  my  travels,  noticing  them  from  the  railroad, 
I  could  see  no  difference  in  the  grade  of  live  stock,  except 
in  Middle  Tennessee  and  the  better  parts  of  Kentucky,  from 
the  kind  we  saw  there  during  the  war. 

I  can  remember  sixty  years  back  in  Strawtown,  Hamil- 
ton county,  Indiana,  thirty-five  miles  north  of  here  on  my 
father's  farm,  we  had  the  old  razor-back  hogs  and  kept 
them  a  year  and  a  half  and  two  years  before  they  matured, 
and  we  had  the  same  old-fashioned  cattle  and  poultry. 

Then  there  was  a  farmer  by  the  name  of  David  Cor- 
nelius, who  came  from  Wayne  County,  which  is  Governor 
Morton's  and  Dudley  Foulke's  county,  and  one  of  the 
earliest  settled  counties  in  the  State.  He  bought  a  good 
river  farm  in  my  father's  township.  He  brought  with  him 
a  thoroughbred  bull  and  a  number  of  thoroughbred  cattle, 
hogs  and  poultry.  Later  I  worked  on  his  farm  for  two 
years  at  $8.00  per  month.  The  adjoining  farmers  soon  be- 
gan to  breed  to  his  thoroughbred  cattle,  hogs  and  poultry, 
and  in  a  few  years  it  extended  throughout  the  township. 

In  that  township  today  there  is  not  a  bull  that  is  not  a 
thoroughbred,  nor  a  sheep  that  is  not  a  half-breed  or  a 


With  the  Beef  Trust  23 

thoroughbred,  nor  a  hog  raised  that  is  not  a  half-breed  or  a 
thoroughbred,  and  the  poultry  the  same.  This  same  thing 
can  be  done  in  any  of  the  canebrake  or  mountain  townships 
of  the  Southern  States.  Five  Hereford  short  horned  bulls  or 
Polled  Angus  bulls  at  a  cost  of  $50  per  head  would  change 
the  character  of  the  cattle  in  four  years  and  make  them  at 
least  half  thoroughbred ;  five  to  ten  bucks,  at  a  cost  of  $8.00 
to  $10.00  each,  would  change  the  character  of  the  sheep  in 
two  years;  twenty  boars. at  the  cost  of  $10.00  each  would 
change  the  character  of  the  hogs;  five  hundred  dozen  of 
eggs,  at  a  cost  of  fifty  cents  a  dozen,  would  change  all  the 
chickens;  five  hundred  dozen  of  turkey  eggs,  at  a  cost  of 
sixty  cents  a  dozen,  would  change  all  the  turkeys ;  and  the 
same  could  be  done  with  the  ducks  and  geese. 

I  see  a  great  future,  especially  in  the  mountain  belts 
along  the  rivers,  for  the  improvement  and  expansion  of  the 
chickens,  turkeys  and  geese.  An  acre  or  two  of  alfalfa  or 
of  millet  on  the  sides  of  a  mountain  or  hill,  where  tobacco, 
corn  or  wheat  can  not  be  produced,  together  with  what  they 
will  pick  up  in  the  way  of  beech  nuts  and  other  mast,  such 
as  they  have  in  the  mountainous  districts,  would  furnish 
sufficient  amount  of  feed  to  support  the  poultry.  The  fact 
is  it  does  not  take  any  more  to  feed  the  high  grades  than  it 
takes  to  feed  the  inferior. 

There  is  a  vast  difference  whether  you  have  an  old- 
fashioned  turkey  hen  weighing  seven  to  nine  pounds 
dressed,  or  a  high  grade  turkey  hen  weighing  ten  to  fifteen 
pounds  dressed;  whether  you  have  a  hen  chicken  a  year 
old,  weighing  two  and  one-half  to  three  pounds  dressed, 
or  one  weighing  five  to  seven  pounds ;  whether  you  have  a 
yearling  steer  or  a  two-year-old,  weighing  four  to  six  hun- 


24  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Helt. 

dred  pounds  alive,  or  one  weighing  nine  to  twelve  hundred ; 
whether  you  have  a  hog  at  the  age  of  two  years  weighing 
two  hundred  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  or  whether 
you  have  a  hog  at  the  age  of  six  or  eight  months  weighing 
two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds. 

I  have  boaght  thousands  of  hogs  coming  from  the  town- 
ship where  I  was  reared,  weighing  two  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  at  the  age  of  six  or  eight  months,  and  thousands  of 
cattle  with  the  difference  in  the  weights  described  above, 
and  I  have  bought  them  also  from  every  township  of  Joseph 
Cannon's  district. 

During  the  years  from  '68  to  '71  the  firm  of  Stafford  & 
Shiel  was  possibly  the  second  or  third  largest  of  the  ship- 
pers of  live  stock  in  the  United  States.  Stafford  lived  in 
New  Carlisle,  Ohio,  near  Springfield.  I  am  the  Shiel,  liv- 
ing in  Indianapolis.  Thirty-five  or  forty  years  ago  I  fre- 
quently sold  a  train  load  of  cattle  in  a  day  at  Hoboken,  and 
I  have  sold  as  many  as  two  train  loads  a  day  of  live  stock  at 
Albany,  New  York,  as  these  places  were  the  stock  markets 
for  New  York  and  New  England.  The  hogs  went  principal- 
ly to  John  P.  Squire  &  Co.,  Boston ;  Charles  P.  North  &  Co., 
Boston;  White,  Pevey  &  Dexter,  Worcester,  and  S.  E.  Mer- 
win  &  Co.,  New  Haven.  I  have  bought  as  much  as  a  train 
load  of  Texas  cattle  at  a  time — the  long-horned  kind.  The 
fact  is,  I  bought  the  first  cattle  that  came  through  this  city. 
I  have  also  bought  hundreds  of  boat  loads  and  train  loads  of 
the  best  cattle  out  of  central  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois,  and 
many  from  Kentucky  for  export.  "  In  truth,  I  bought  the 
first  export  cattle  for  Mayer  Goldsmith  and  Timothy  East- 
man, of  New  York,  and  Nelson  Morris,  as  they  were  the 
first  exporters  of  cattle. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  25 

Later  I  saw  the  West  was  coming  to  the  front  with  im- 
proved stock,  the  same  as  they  did  in  Hamilton  County,  and 
I  bought  car  load  after  car  load  of  thoroughbred  Shorthorn, 
Hereford  and  Polled  Angus  bulls  to  ship  to  the  West  to  go 
on  the  ranches.  I  encouraged  Fowler  &  Venetta,  at  Fowler 
and  Lafayette,  Indiana,  who  were  the  largest  Hereford 
breeders  possibly  in  the  country  thirty  years  ago.  to  culti- 
vate the  Western  breed  and  get  their  thoroughbreds  and 
half-breeds  West  to  build  up  the  Texas  cattle.  Some  thirty 
years  ago  they  shipped  a  boat  load  of  their  Herefords  to 
South  America  to  find  a  market  for  their  surplus. 

I  need  not  say  much  to  you  on  this,  for  you  have  been 
West  and  know  what  they  were,  and  ought  to  know  what 
they  are  now.  It  has  not  been  more  tha,n  twentj^-five  or 
thirty  years  since  General  Wadsworth  commenced  to  ship 
the  Herefords  West,  and  now  his  sons  have  no  other  kind 
on  their  ranches  in  Texas  and  other  States. 

There  can  be  much  said  on  this  and  much  done  with  it. 
I  find  the  State  of  Indiana  paying  salaries  to  twenty-five 
or  thirty  men  to  look  after  the  fish  and  game,  and  I  find 
many  other  States  and  also  the  Government  spending  large 
sums  of  money  on  that  line.  Nothing,  to  my  mind,  would 
be  farther  reaching  than  the  forcing  of  better  live  stock 
into  sections  that  have  been  neglected  on  this  point.  I  sug- 
gested this  to  President  Harrison  after  he  was  elected  and 
before  he  went  to  Washington,  and  took  it  up  with  him  and 
Secretary  Rusk  after  he  got  to  Washington,  and  the  meat 
inspection  law  came  through  Secretary  Rusk  and  President 
•Harrison  largely  from  our  conferences. 

There  is  no  greater  fraud  known  than  meat.  Note, 
there  is  not  five  per  cent,  of  the  cattle  that  are  anywhere 


26  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

near  the  first  ^ade,  especially  when  feed  is  as  high  as  it  is 
now.  There  isn't  fifteen  per  cent,  that  are  second  grade, 
or,  in  other  words,  there  are  not  fifteen  cars  out  of  a  hun- 
dred that  will  sell  first  or  second.  The.  medium  and  low 
grade  cattle  are  selling  now  for  practically  what  they  have 
been  selling  for  for  years — possibly  a  half  a  dollar  higher. 
There  is  where  the  dressed  beef  men  make  their  big  profit ; 
making  the  people  believe  that  they  are  selling  them  fine 
quality  meat  when  they  are  getting  only  a  low  grade.  You 
cannot  get  a  high  grade  of  meat  out  of  a  low  grade  stock. 
The  same  will  apply  to  poultry  of  all  kinds. 

Let  me  cite  you  to  an  actual  fact.  While  attending  the 
Army  of  the  Cumberland  reunion  at  Chattanooga  in  Oc- 
tober, Secretary  of  the  Association  O.  A.  Sommers  took  his 
wife,  daughter  and  myself  in  an  automobile  to  go  over  the 
Chickamauga  battlefield.  To  my  astonishment  I  saw  then 
the  same  old-fashioned  cattle  as  were  there  in  1863.  Upon 
our  return,  about  eight  miles  out  of  Chattanooga,  near  Ross- 
ville,  and  within  a  hundred  yards  of  the  boulevard,  we  came 
upon  a  farmer  who  had  shot  down  a  steer  which  looked  like 
it  weighed  about  five  hundred  pounds.  He  had  hung  it  up 
between  two  trees  by  having  his  wife  sit  upon  the  long  end 
of  the  pole,  holding  the  steer  up  while  two  men  were  skin- 
ning it.  They  had  it  about  half  skinned.  I  said  to  Mr. 
Sommers  that  it  reminded  me  of  Grant's  Memoirs,  where 
Lincoln  said  to  him  when  he  went  to  the  White  House  to 
get  his  commission  as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army, 
' '  I  kind  of  like  your  way  of  fighting ;  you  make  them  skin 
or  hold  a  leg. ' '  They  had  the  old  lady  holding  up  the  bul- 
lock while  the  men  skinned  it.  It  reminded  me  of  sixty 
years  ago  at  Strawtown,  and  yet  it  was  going  on  within 


With  the  Beef  Trust  27 

eight  miles  of  Chattanooga  with  the  same  old  cattle  such  as 
they  had  in  Strawtown  sixty  years  ago. 

I  have  never  been  much  of  a  hunter,  such  as  you  have 
been,  but  I  killed  a  wild  turkey  near  Strawtown  when  I  was 
about  twelve  years  old.  The  woods  were  full  of  them  then. 
I  brought  it  home  and  the  folks  tried  to  make  me  believe 
I  had  found  the  turkey  dead,  and  didn  't  want  to  cook  it.  I 
never  had  the  courage  to  go  hunting  afterwards. 

Some  twenty-five  to  thirty  years  ago  I  had  more  than 
a  hundred  customers  in  Lancaster,  Chester  and  Burke 
counties,  Pennsylvania,  to  w^hom  I  furnished  stock  cattle 
to  feed.  These  three  counties  have  more  cattle  on  feed 
than  the  whole  State  of  Indiana.  They  have  a  market  at 
Lancaster,  which  has  been  established  in  the  laist  fifteen  or 
twenty  years,  for  stock  cattle,  many  of  them  coming  from 
Canada,  which  has  better  stock.  In  fact,  Buffalo  forwards 
many  stock  cattle  to  Lancaster  that  come  from  Canada. 
But  the  canebrake  or  knot-head  or  "penny  royal,"  old- 
fashioned  cattle  come  to  St.  Louis,  Louisville  and  Cincin- 
nati, and  are  forwarded  on  to  be  sold  to  the  farmers  in 
Pennsylvania  and  also  to  Buffalo  to  be  sold  to  the  New  York 
farmers.  It  is  a  great  fraud  to  sell  these  old-fashioned  cat- 
tle, which  won't  take  on  the  weight  or  make  first  or  even 
third-class  meat  after  they  are  fed,  to  the  Pennsylvania  and 
New  York  farmers,  when  they  could  be  bred  up  in  a  few 
years  and  the  farmers  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  would 
get  better  stock.  Now  as  many  as  two  hundred  to  three 
hundred  cars  of  stock  cattle  are  sold  in  Lancaster  per  week 
jn  the  Summer  and  Fall  of  the  year  when  the  farmers  take 
on  their  feeding  cattle,  where  twenty  years  ago  there  was 
no  market. 

Of  course  I  could  say  the  same  of  the  number  of  custom- 


28  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

ers  I  had  in  New  York  State,  in  the  interior  and  New  York 
City,  and  also  in  Baltimore  and  throughout  Maryland.  At 
one  time,  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago,  in  the  anthracite  coal 
country,  I  furnished  practically  all  of  the  cattle  and  hogs  to 
the  butchers  in  fifteen  or  twenty  cities  and  towns,  such  as 
Pottsville,  Shamokin,  Scranton,  Grirardville  and  Schuylkill. 
They  took  the  very  highest  grades,  and  up  to  this  time  the 
dressed  beef  people  have  not  been  able  to  do  any  good  there, 
as  they  kill  their  own  cattle  and  they  get  their  supplies  from 
the  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  feeders.  They  pay  the  best 
prices  for  the  best  stock.  The  miners  want  good  meat,  and 
you  cannot  palm  off  an  old  Jersey  cow  or  bull  or  half -fatted 
stock  on  them. 

I  bought  for  more  than  twenty  years  for  the  best  butcher 
in  the  United  States,  Richard  Webber,  at  One-hundred- and- 
twenty-third  Street  and  Third  Avenue,  New  York  City. 
He  took  nothing  but  the  highest  grade  stock  that  came  to 
market.     He  never  had  a  poor  piece  of  meat  in  his  shop. 

Pardon  me  for  writing  this  long  letter,  but  I  think  I 
understand  this  business.  I  have  been  thoroughly  educated 
in  it,  while  my  book  learning  was  neglected  when  a  boy,  I 
am  a  great  reader  of  facts,  but  a  poor  reader  of  fiction.  I 
never  found  I  could  do  any  good  reading  fiction. 

I  believe  that  the  Pure  Food  Law,  which  you  had  passed, 
is  the  greatest  law  that  has  ever  been  enacted.  Thousands 
of  people  have  been  poisoned  by  adulterated  meats,  foods 
and  medicine.  Your  improvement  of  the  Meat  Inspection 
Law  is  also  a  great  benefit.  These  two  laws  will  add  more 
renown  to  your  administration  than  any  others,  while  there 
are  many  excellent  ones. 

Yours  very  truly, 

R.  R.  Shiel. 

November,  1908. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  29 

COMMISSION'S  LETTER  TO  MR.  SHIEL. 


Commission  on  Country  Life. 
Washington,  D.  C. 

K.  H.  Bailey,  Chairman. 
Henry  Wallace. 

GiFFORD  PiNCHOT. 

k.  l.  butterfield. 

Walter  H.  Page. 

NoRVAL  D.  Kemp,  Secretary  to  the  Chairman. 

Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  November  25,  1908. 
R.  R.  Shiel,  Shiel  Apartment  House,  Indianapolis,  hid.: 

My  Dear  Sir — ^Your  letter  of  the  21st  addressed  to  Wil- 
liam Loeb,  Jr.,  Secretary  to  the  President,  enclosing  a  letter 
to  the  President  has  been  forwarded  to  the  Commission  on 
Country  Life.  We  are  very  much  interested  in  your  discus- 
sion of  the  lack  of  progress  made  in  the  production  of  live 
stock  and  poultry  in  the  South  Central  States.  Can  you 
make  a  similar  comparative  discussion  of  the  quality  of 
production  in  Indiana  and  Ohio,  addressing  it  to  this  Com- 
mission at  this  office?  We  will  appreciate  your  co-opera- 
tion. 

Yours  very  truly, 

NoRVAL  D.  Kemp. 


MR.  SHIEL 'S  LETTER  TO  THE  COMMISSION. 


Indianapolis,  Ind.,  December,  1908. 
Commission  on  Country  Life,  Washingten,  D.  C: 

Gentlemen — In  reply  to  your  request  that  I  furnish  you 
with  a  comparative  discussion  of  the  lack  of  progress  in  the 


30  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

production  of  high-class  live  stock  and  poultry  in  Indiana 
and  Ohio,  I  have  prepared  a  brief  on  this  subject,  made  up 
largely  of  letters  which  I  have  received  from  the  most  in- 
telligent and  best-informed  men  of  my  personal  acquaint- 
ance in  the  localities  in  which  they  live.  Many  of  them  I 
have  done  business  with,  dating  from  1865,  and  I  know  ab- 
solutely that  they  thoroughly  understand  the  business  and 
that  their  statements  are  facts,  and,  moreover,  that  they  are 
as  well  versed  on  this  subject  as  any  farmers  in  Indiana, 
Illinois  or  Ohio.     Many  of  them  are  college  graduates. 

I  wish  I  could  take  up  this  question  with  over  a  thou- 
sand men  whom  I  have  known  and  with  whom  I  have  done 
business  in  the  States  mentioned ;  but  the  majority  of  them 
are  dead,  and  I  am  now  dealing  with  the  living  men  among 
the  very  best  farmers. 

The  parties  who  have  furnished  me  these  facts 
are  men  of  high  character.  I  have  bought  hun- 
dreds of  carloads  of  stock  of  them  and  others,  and 
in  every  case  I  would  rather  they  would  weigh  the 
stock  than  I,  for  they  did  business  in  a  ''Missouri"  way, 
while  today  it  is  quite  different.  I  always  knew  what  I  was 
getting  and  that  I  was  receiving  the  correct  weight,  because 
I  knew  the  men.  I  did  not  have  to  drive  out  and  see  the 
stock  I  was  buying — it  was  just  as  good  one  year  as  another, 
and  it  would  be  just  the  same  the  year  after.  The  stock 
was  all  bred  alike  and  fattened  alike,  and  was  all  high- 
grade,  with  no  Jerseys  sandwiched  in. 

First,  before  taking  up  the  different  States  and  the  let- 
ters which  cover  the  conditions  in  each,  I  want  to  call  your 
attention  to  a  statement  of  the  conditions  in  the  breeding 
of  stock  in  other  countries,  and  how  like  conditions  might 


With  the  Beef  Trust  31 

be  changed  and  improved  by  a  similar  process  in  our  own. 
Much  could  be  done  with  this.  By  all  means  thoroughbred 
live  stock  of  all  kinds  should  be  put  on  the  free  list.  This 
information  I  obtained  at  a  very  considerable  cost  to  myself, 
aided  by  the  services  of  the  brightest  man  in  the  meat  trade 
I  ever  knew.  He  spent  over  a  year  in  thoroughly  looking 
into  this  matter.  In  fact,  he  has  been  in  all  of  these  coun- 
tries twice,  dealing  with  the  most  reliable  and  substantial 
people  there. 

This  takes  us  back  to  my  first  letter  to  President  Roose- 
velt,  where  I  speak  about  Fowler  &  Venetta,  of  Lafayette, 
Indiana,  exporting  Hereford  cattle  into  South  America, 
and  my  advice  to  them  to  go  West,  w^hich  they  did. 

LIVE    STOCK   IN    DENMARK   AND   OTHER    COUNTRIES. 

A  few  years  ago  the  Danish  Government  took  up  the 
matter  of  improving  the  quality  of  the  hogs  raised  in  that 
country,  as  it  was  its  intention  to  have  the  farmers  engage 
in  the  pork  slaughtering  business  and  supply  fresh  and 
cured  pork,  principally  to  Great  Britain. 

The  Danish  breed  of  hogs  was  not  satisfactory,  and  the 
authorities  looked  about  to  find  where  they  could  get  the 
best  breeds,  or  better  breeds  than  they  had,  that  would 
bring  the  most  money  when  cured. 

They  visited  several  countries  and  finally  settled  upon 
England  as  being  the  place  to  get  hogs  that  suited  them 
best.  They  purchased  a  large  number  of  good  males  and 
females  of  the  same  breed,  but  at  different  places.  Then 
they  forced  the  male  hogs  to  be  changed  every  year  to  other 
sections,  so  they  would  not  be  interbred.  Furthermore, 
they   had    veterinary    surgeons    and    other    inspectors   go 


32  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

through  the  whole  of  Denmark  and  sterilize,  at  a  very  young 
age,  all  animals  that  were  not  calculated  to  be  bred  from ; 
at  the  same  time  instructing  the  people  what  to  do  and  how 
to  do  regarding  the  breeding,  feeding  and  proper  care  of 
the  stock. 

They  strictly  prohibited  the  farmers  from  breeding  their 
own  old-style  stock  and  took  every  precaution  to  get  away 
from  the  old  breed  and  to  introduce  the  new.  This  they 
have  done  very  satisfactorily;  so  much  so  that  they  are 
now  and  have  been  for  several  years  supplying  a  large 
amount  of  very  superior  meat  to  Great  Britain,  and  getting 
the  very  best  prices — generally  higher  prices  than  any  meat 
from  the  United  States  or  Canada — and  almost  as  high  as 
the  finest  Irish  pork  from  Limerick,  Waterford,  Cork  and 
Belfast. 

The  Government  took  particular  pains  also  to  see  that 
the  small  packing  establishments  were  properly  managed 
by  first-class  men  who  were  experienced  in  curing,  and  that 
co-operative  pork  factories  were  established.  The  fact  is, 
some  of  these  pork  factories  are  now  run  in  connection  with 
dairies,  where  butter  and  cheese  are  made.  In  addition,  it 
was  arranged  that  the  farmers  could  be  supplied  with  feed- 
ing stuffs  at  very  reasonable  rates  from  the  depots  where 
they  delivered  their  hogs  and  milk.  In  fact,  everything, 
was  done  to  foster  the  manufacture  of  a  superior  grade  of 
pork,  butter,  eggs,  cheese,  etc. 

Danish  meats  are  now  regularly  quoted  in  English  pa- 
pers in  such  cities  as  London,  Liverpool,  Hull  and  in  many 
other  large  cities  in  Great  Britain. 

France  has  done  much  in  the  improvement  of  its  stock; 
in  fact,  they  have  all  their  horses  sterilized  except  those  re- 


With  the  Beef  Trust  33 

served  for  breeding  purposes,  and  the  Government  has  an 
option  on  all  male  colts  for  army  use,  but  nothing  like  what 
has  been  done  in  Denmark,  for  the  Danes  completely 
changed  their  entire  breed  in  four  or  five  years. 

The  people  in  Uruguay,  South  America,  and  especially 
the  province  of  Montevideo,  have  been  within  the  last  few 
years  importing  the  same  class  of  hogs  that  the  Danes  did 
from  England,  principally  from  Mr.  Sanders  Spencer  in 
the  midlands  of  England. 

It  can  be  readily  seen,  then,  that  our  neighbors  in  South 
America  intend  to  produce  a  superior  quality  of  pork,  which 
will  undoubtedly,  in  due  time,  be  an  important  competitor 
with  other  countries. 

It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  South  America  has  shipped 
more  dressed  beef  of  a  very  superior  grade  into  Great 
Britain  in  the  last  few  years  than  has  the  United  States 
and  Canada  or  any  other  country. 

CONDITIONS   IN   OHIO. 

I  have  not  dealt  much  in  Ohio  in  the  last  thirty-two 
years,  especially  since  I  established  a  stock  yards  in  Indian- 
apolis; yet  I  have  done  considerable  business  in  parts  of 
Ohio,  as  I  operated  a  stock  yards  in  Cleveland  some  six  or 
eight  years  ago.  My  knowledge  of  Ohio,  however,  is  fairly 
good.  The  country  there  is  not  the  same  as  it  was  thirty 
or  forty  years  ago,  particularly  the  northern  part.  The 
stock  in  northern  Ohio  is  not  nearly  so  good  as  in  the  cen- 
tral or  southern  sections. 

There  is  not  a  foot  of  land  in  Ohio  that  will  not  produce 
blue  grass — even  on  the  mountain  or  hillside — if  properly 
cleared  and  ditched.     In  southern  Ohio  sheep  will  graze  on 


34  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

every  foot  of  land  if  the  scrub  trees  were  cut  down  so  that 
the  shade  would  not  deter  the  growth  of  the  blue  grass.  It 
is  a  great  waste  to  undertake  to  produce  timber  that  will 
smother  out  enough  blue  grass  to  pay  for  the  trees  every 
few  years.  It  will  take  forty  years  to  produce  a  good  tree, 
and  a  scrub  beech,  elm  or  oak  would  probably  not  be  good 
in  fifty  years. 

While  hogs  and  cattle  in  northern  Ohio  are  much  better 
than  they  were  twenty-five  to  forty  years  ago,  owing  in  part 
to  ditching  and  other  improvements  on  the  farm,  yet,  as  I 
have  just  said,  they  are  not  as  good  as  in  the  central  or 
southern  parts  of  the  State.  Hogs  from  northern  Ohio 
shrink  two  or  three  per  cent,  from  gross  to  net  weight — 
which  runs  five  to  eight  pounds  to  the  head — more  than  in 
central  or  southern  Ohio.  The  fact  is  the  stock  is  not  the 
same,  and  there  is  a  different  character  of  feeding.  The 
Michigan  hogs  are  not  as  good  as  those  of  central  Indiana, 
Illinois  or  central  Ohio,  as  they  will  not  produce  by  three 
per  cent,  as  much  meat. 

Forty  years  ago  in  passing  through  on  what  was  known 
then  as  the  ''Bee"  Line,  now  the  ''Big  Four,"  and  the  Pan- 
handle, which  is  now  the  Pennsylvania  road,  I  could  see  the 
sides  of  the  hills  covered  in  many  places  with  little 
Merino  sheep  weighing  from  sixty  to  ninety  pounds,  some 
possibly  weighing  up  to  a  hundred  pounds.  They  were 
bred  solely  for  wool,  as  they  made  a  superior  quality,  but 
there  was  no  profit  in  them  for  meat.  In  fact,  they  did 
not  get  fat  enough  to  make  good  meat.  At  that  time  there 
were  a  great  many  swamps  and  sloughs  on  the  lines  of  these 
roads,  and  they  were  all  filled  with  wild  grass  where  it  was 
dry  enough  for  grass  to  grow. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  35 

I  now  see  the  same  hills  covered  with  practically  as  many 
or  more  sheep  of  new  breeds,  weighing,  as  a  yearling  or  a 
two-year-old,  from  one  hundred  and  twenty  to  one  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds.  The  lambs  of  the  old-fashioned  ewes,  at 
five  and  six  months  old,  would  weigh  forty  to  fifty  pounds, 
and  the  lambs  of  the  new  kind  now  will  weigh  at  the  same 
age  something  like  seventy  to  eighty  pounds. 

There  is  not,  I  repeat,  a  foot  of  land  in  Ohio  that  will 
not  produce  blue  grass,  and  it  is  produced  there  now  where 
the  land  has  been  properly  drained  and  the  hills  and  moun- 
tains cleared  of  the  timber.  Blue  grass,  as  is  well  under- 
stood, will  not  grow  under  the  shade  of  trees.  Sheep  will 
fatten  on  blue  grass,  and  in  fact  will  keep  fat  on  it  in  the 
winter  if  the  snow  does  not  cover  it  so  they  cannot  get  to  it ; 
but  with  cured  alfalfa  in  the  winter  you  can  keep  them  fat 
all  the  year  around. 

The  same  can  be  said  of  the  sheep  in  Indiana,  and  also 
of  the  blue  grass.  Forty  years  ago  Indiana  had  the  old- 
fashioned  kind  of  sheep,  long  wool,  but  of  a  much  larger 
kind  than  those  in  Ohio,  the  kind  that  we  sent  to  New  Jer- 
sey for  breeding  early  lambs.  Thirty-two  years  ago,  when 
we  opened  the  Indianapolis  stock  yards,  we  received  more 
sheep  then  in  Indianapolis,  coming- from  southern  Indiana, 
and  in  fact  southern  Illinois  and  Kentuckj^,  than  were  re- 
ceived in  Chicago.  There  is  nothing  that  has  expanded 
faster  than  the  production  of  sheep,  and  there  is  nothing 
more  profitable  to  grow.  They  can  graze  on  land  where 
you  cannot  produce-  anything  but  blue  grass  or  alfalfa.  It 
•is  marvelous  the  wonderful  expansion  of  sheep  raising  in 
the  West  in  the  last  twenty  years. 

Thirty  or  thirty-five  years  ago  it  was  an  unknown  thing 


36  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

to  export  a  sheep.  I  believe  Hollis  Bros.,  of  Boston,  were 
the  first  exporters  of  sheep.  They  buy  space  in  a  vessel  for 
sheep  and  cattle,  and  can  export  a  bullock  weighing  1,700 
pounds  at  the  same  freight  rates  as  one  weighing  800 
pounds,  and  a  sheep  weighing  one  hundred  and  forty  or 
one  hundred  and  sixty  pounds  at  the  same  freight  as  one  of 
the  old-fashioned  kind  weighing  ninety  pounds. 

There  is  no  more  profitable  crop  grown  than  blue  grass. 
where  it  is  properly  cared  for.  In  the  South  I  could  see  all 
kinds  of  possibilities  with  blue  grass  and  alfalfa,  as  the 
sheep  can  live  on  either  in  Winter  without  any  other  feed 
w^hatever,  and  the  grass  will  grow  all  the  year  round.  There 
is  no  other  meat  that  is  as  wholesome  as  mutton,  and  it  can- 
not be  adulterated  and  put  into  cans  as  is  done  with  a  Jer- 
sey or  the  poorest  kind  of  beef,  and  palmed  off  for  the  very 
best.  One  don't  have  to  keep  mutton  in  a  refrigerator  for 
a  week  or  ten  days  to  get  it  tender  enough  to  eat.  It  is 
ready  to  eat  the  next  day  after  it  is  killed.  The  expansion 
in  this  trade  has  been  marvelous,  but  it  is  just  beginning. 

One  of  the  greatest  projects  that  is  being  promoted  in 
the  interest  of  the  farmers  in  Ohio  who  find  a  market  for 
their  live  stock  at  the  Cleveland  stock  yards,  is  the  Belt 
.Railroad  which  is  now  being  built  and  which  will  encircle 
the  city  of  Cleveland.  It  will  connect  with  all  railroads 
which  bring  stock  into  Cleveland,  thereby  obviating  delays 
in  the  handling  and  delivery  of  the  farmers '  live  stock,  and 
the  great  loss  to  them  in  the  way  of  deaths  of  animals  and 
big  shrinkage.  It  will  also  inure  to  their  benefit  in  getting 
their  stock  early  on  the  market,  thereby  gaining  advantage 
of  the  best  prices.  This  delay  under  the  existing  circum- 
stances has  heretofore  been  unavoidable. 


With  the  Beef  Tkust  37 

I  promoted  this  belt  road  about  Cleveland,  Ohio,  a  thing 
which  I  had  been  trying  to  do  for  twenty  or  thirty  years, 
as  I  saw  the  necessity  of  it.  I  had  a  charter  for  it.  All 
the  shipments  had  to  cross  the  two  or  three  turn  bridges 
on  the  Cuyahoga  River  at  the  lake  in  Cleveland,  and  I  have 
had  thousands  of  deaths  in  the  shipping  of  live  stock  on  ac- 
count of  the  poor  handling  and  the  three  to  six  hours  deten- 
tion, waiting  to  get  through  the  turn  bridges,  which  also 
caused  a  big  shrinkage. 

It  was  said  that  a  belt  railroad  could  not  be  built  around 
Cleveland.  Having  driven  over  the  ground  many  times, 
and  knowing  the  absolute  necessity  to  Cleveland  that  such 
a  line  should  be  built,  I  concluded  to  make  the  effort ;  and, 
to  that  end,  I  employed  Mr.  Morris  DeFrees,  who  was  the 
civil  engineer  in  charge  during  the  construction  of  the  Belt 
Railroad  we  built  around  Indianapolis  thirty-two  ^ears  ago 
— the  first  belt  railroad  ever  built  in  this  country. 

Mr.  DeFrees  reported  that  the  project  was  not  feasible, 
owing  to  the  excessive  grades  that  would  be  encountered. 
His  report  did  not  discourage  me.  I  then  employed  Mr. 
Jashua  Abbott,  a  civil  engineer  of  ability  and  large  ex- 
perience. 

After  making  a  number  of  surveys,  Mr.  Abbott  reported 
that  the  desired  grade  of  three-tenths  of  one  per  cent,  (the 
grade  insisted  on  by  the  railroads  who  would  use  the  belt) 
could  be  secured  at  enormous  cost,  by  building  through 
East  Cleveland  and  crossing  the  Cuyahoga  River  and  val- 
ley at  an  elevation  of  about  one  hundred  fifty  feet. 

"We  organized  the  Cleveland  Belt  Railroad,  made  our 
surveys,  and  furnished  our  maps  and  profiles  to  the  rail- 
roads, all  of  which  were  entirely  satisfactory  to  them.    We 


38  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

thought  we  had  the  matter  cinched,  having  negotiated  for 
the  money  to  build  the  line ;  but  the  ' '  powers ' '  got  onto  it 
and  concluded  to  take  advantage  of  our  efforts.  We  were 
ruled  out,  and  the  four-track  belt  line  road  around  Cleve- 
land is  now  nearly  completed,  and  "on  the  line  we  had 
adopted. 

The  ''powers"  became  conscience-stricken,  and  gave  us 
back  the  money  which  we  had  expended  in  our  successful 
efforts  in  demonstrating  the  feasibility  of  a  belt  road 
around  Cleveland. 

It  will,  I  hope,  be  a  pardonable  digression  for  me  to  say 
that  as  regards  Mr.  Tom  L.  Johnson,  one  of  the  ' 'powers, "  I 
' '  raised ' '  him  in  my  precinct  at  the  Grand  Hotel  in  Indian- 
apolis when  he  came  here  from  Louisville  with  his  father 
and  bought  the  Indianapolis  street  railway  line  for 
$25,000.  He  was  a  Democrat.  As  to  Mr.  Tom  Tag- 
gart,  I  "raised"  him  also  in  my  precinct.  He  used  to 
be  a  Republican.  He  came  here  as  a  waiter  in  the  hotel 
and  finally  got  to  be  manager  of  the  Depot  restaurant. 

Mr.  E.  O'Day,  whose  letter  will  explain  itself,  is  the  only 
man  now  living  with  whom  I  transacted  business  years  ago 
at  Mt.  Sterling,  Ohio,  and  who  is  now  located  at  London, 
Ohio.  My  first  partner,  James  Flanders,  who  owned  two 
thousand  acres  of  land  at  Strawtown,  came  from  Mt.  Ster- 
ling, Ohio,  and  he  was  a  very  large  dealer  in  stock  during 
the  war. 

CONDITIONS   IN   INDIANA. 

The  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Southwestern  starts  out  of  Cin- 
cinnati and  runs  to  St.  Louis.  All  south  of  that  line  in 
our  Hoosier  State,  which  takes  in  about  ten  or  fifteen 
counties,  is  not  near  as  good  in  the  way  of  live  stock  as  it 


With  the  Beef  Tkust  39 

was  forty  years  ago,  with  the  exception  possibly  of  two  or 
three  counties  in  the  Pocket.  The  land  is  hilly  and  the  bot- 
toms are  wet  and  there  has  been  little  or  no  ditching. 

Spencer  county,  where  the  Nancy  Hanks  monument  is 
and  where  Abraham  Lincoln  was  brought  up,  is  very  little 
if  any  better  now  than  it  was  then.  There  is  not  a  foot  of 
land  in  that  county  that  will  not  grow  blue  grass  and  fruit 
if  it  is  properly  drained  and  cultivated.  There  is  scarcely 
a  county  in  the  State  that  has  made  less  progress  than  this 
county.  The  farmers  have  put  in  very  few  ditches ;  there  are 
lots  of  wild  woods  where  you  can  see  the  old-fashioned  cows 
and  sheep  with  bells  on  them  running  practically  uncared 
for — wild,  I  might  say.  There  is  not  much  difference  in  the 
progress  in  southern  Indiana  south  of  the  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  Southwestern,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  counties  in 
the  Pocket ;  and  in  two  or  three  counties  north  of  the  Balti- 
more and  Ohio  Southwestern  very  little,  if  anything,  has 
been  done  to  better  the  conditions  of  fifty  years  ago. 

Note  what  the  Grahams  say  of  Jefferson  county,  where 
everybody  went  to  market  in  Madison  sixty  years  ago. 
Also  what  Mr.  Dean  says  of  the  fruit  growing.  Graham's 
father  and  Mr.  Dean  served  in  the  army  with  me. 

The  College  at  Hanover,  in  that  county,  has  made  no 
progress  whatever.  This  is  the  school  that  the  late  Vice- 
President  Hendricks  attended,  but  did  not  graduate. 

The  fact  is,  in  southern  Indiana,  along  with  the  old-fash- 
ioned sheep,  old-fashioned  cattle  and  old-fashioned  swine 
and  poultry,  there  are  too  many  of  the  old-fashioned 
farmers ;  that  is,  boys  who  were  reared  on  the  farms,  whose 
fathers  and  grandfathers  were  farmers  and  perhaps  early 
settlers — who  have  inherited  the  old-fashioned  views  con- 


40  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

cerning  the  old-fashioned  fanning  implements,  the  old-fash- 
ioned stock  and  poultry — men  who  still  have  the  sheep  and 
the  cattle  with  bells  on ;  who  have  never  taken  advantage  of 
up-to-date  agricultural  colleges ;  who  have  farms  where  they 
raise  com  fifty  to  seventy  bushels  to  the  acre  and  do  not 
gather  it  until  March  or  April. 

I  have  seen  the  same  kind  of  farmers  in  Ohio,  and  in  Illi- 
nois, but  not  so  many  in  Illinois,  for  Western  farmers  are 
more  progressive.  This  Fall  and  Winter,  however,  up  to 
this  time  there  are  thousands  of  acres  of  corn  in  Indiana, 
Ohio  and  Illinois  that  has  not  yet  been  cribbed.  These 
farmers  go  fishing  and  hunting  when  they  ought  to  be  gath- 
ering the  corn  aud  improving  their  land.  Many  of  them 
buy  very  expensive  farm  machinery — sometimes  on  pay- 
ments— and  do  not  build  a  shed  or  any  other  covering  over 
them,  but  leave  them  out  in  the  weather  until  they  are  al- 
most ruined  before  the  purchaser  has  finished  paying  for 
them. 

The  men  who  sit  around  all  day  fishing  are  not  doing 
any  good.  My  average  night's  sleep  has  not  exceeded  six 
hours  in  the  last  forty-three  years,  or  since  I  have  been  in 
business,  and  I  have  been  putting  in  hard  work  on  an  aver- 
age of  fifteen  to  eighteen  hours  a  day  every  day  in  the  year 
except  Sundays.     Always  try  to  get  to  church  on  Sunday. 

The  average  farmer  works  fifteen  hours  a  day  during  a 
few  months,  and  only  about  three  hours  a  day  to  feed  the 
stock  during  the  remainder  of  the  year.  Many  of  them  let 
the  fences  go  down,  and  allow  the  briers  to  grow  in  the 
fence  comers.  Let  me  cite  you  a  fact :  My  brother,  three 
years  older  than  I,  and  myself  were  at  a  reunion,  the  47th 
anniversary  of  the  enlistment  of  our  Company  at  Cicero, 


With  the  Beef  Trust  41 

Indiana,  which  is  four  miles  from  Strawtown — and  let  me 
say  in  passing  that  Strawtown  is  the  place  where  the  blue 
grass  grew  ''belly  deep  to  a  horse,"  as  referred  to  by  Mr. 
Lockridge.  This  territory  is  on  the  line  of  White  River, 
where  they  talked  of  having  large  sums  of  money  appro- 
priated in  an  attempt  to  make  White  River  navigable — a 
river  which,  for  three  fourths  of  the  year,  does  not  have 
water  enough  to  carry  away  the  sewage,  and  which  parallels 
steam  and  electric  lines.  The  distance  is  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  from  Strawtown  to  Vincennes.  Strawtown  is 
one  of  the  towns  that  the  railroads  missed,  and  there  is  not 
twenty  per  cent,  of  the  people  living  there  today  there  were 
forty  years  ago.  But  getting  back.  We  took  a  ride  in  a 
buggy  and  went  out  past  the  old  home.  I  had  not  been 
there  in  thirty-five  years.  We  came  across  a  place  covering 
about  sixty  to  eighty  acres,  about  a  half  mile  from  the  farm 
where  I  was  born.  I  asked  my  brother,  who  lived  there. 
' '  Why, ' '  he  said,  ' '  that  man  married  this  farm. ' '  He  was  a 
fisherman.  He  had  built  a  frame  house  of  some  four  or 
five  rooms  about  six  or  eight  years  before,  which  had  never 
been  painted — not  even  primed.  He  had  cleared  up  a  few 
acres  and  the  other  sixty  had  old  wild  blackberries  growing 
on  it,  and  underbrush,  worse  than  it  was  in  the  bleakest  part 
of  Indiana  sixty  years  ago.  Every  acre  of  this  land  would 
yield  at  least  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  bushels  of  corn — 
land  as  fine  as  any  land  in  the  United  States.  It  would  sell 
for  from  $125.00  to  $150.00  an  acre. 

The  next  place  to  it  was  owned  by  James  Hill,  who  is 
about  seventy  years  old  and  was  reared  on  an  adjoining 
farm  to  my  father's.  He  owns  two  hundred  and  sixty  acres. 
His  farm  is  in  as  high  a  state  of  cultivation  as  any  place  in 


42  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

Indiana.  This  shows  the  difference  in  the  conditions  near 
Strawtown.  We  drove  by  the  old  home  which  is  now  owned 
by  one  of  the  Newbys,  the  greatest  family  I  ever  knew,  and 
who  own  one-fourth  of  the  township.  I  asked  my  brother 
what  became  of  the  little  old  sour  apple  tree  that  I  planted 
on  the  side  of  the  hill  sixty  years  ago.  He  said  the  tree  was 
gone  and  the  hill  all  leveled  down.  Live  people  had  gotten 
hold  of  my  father's  farm,  while  a  fisherman  had  married 
the  brier  patch  and  is  still  keeping  it  a  brier  patch  and  liv- 
ing on  fish. 

Forty  years  ago  I  bought  hogs  weighing  two  hundred 
and  forty  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  average,  at  six 
months  old,  as  many  as  one  hundred  at  a  time,  of  Frank 
Newby,  who  is  now  about  eighty  years  old,  and  was  the  best 
feeder  in  the  township  at  that  time.  He  never  allowed  a 
pig  to  squeal  for  feed.  He  fed  them  right  from  the  start  all 
that  they  would  eat. 

The  Newby  family  came  from  Virginia  about  1814  and 
settled  in  Marion  county,  about  ten  miles  north  of  this 
city.  They  moved  up  to  Strawtown  in  the  Spring  of  1836. 
The  head  of  the  family  was  named  John,  and  in  my  time, 
forty- three  years  ago,  when  I  had  a  store  at  Strawtown,  he 
was  known  as  ' '  Old  John. ' '  He  had  a  son  whom  we  called 
''Young  John,"  also  three  other  sons — Squire,  Bill  and 
Frank.  Each  had  a  son  John  whom  we  called  ''Squire's 
John,"  "Bill's  John"  and  "Frank's  John."  There  were 
also  four  daughters  who  married  and  had  families,  with  a 
"John"  in  each  family.  They  all  have  Roosevelt  families. 
This  family  owns  practically  one-fourth  of  the  best  town- 
ship in  the  State  of  Indiana.  All  were  farmers  with  the  ex- 
ception of  ' '  Squire 's  John, ' '  who  became  a  doctor. 


With  the  Beef  Teust  43 

I.have  not  seen  "Squire's  John,"  the  doctor — who,  I  un- 
derstand, is  president  of  a  bank  there  and  who  has  an  excel- 
lent practice — with  the  exception  of  one  time  in  1896  when  I 
was  traveling  on  the  hind-end  of  a  train  with  J.  B.  Foraker, 
Senator  from  Ohio.  When  the  train  stopped  at  Sheridan, 
Indiana,  which  is  in  the  next  township  to  Strawtown,  I  in- 
troduced Mr.  Foraker  to  the  crowd.  Newby  got  on  the 
train  there  and  introduced  himself  to  me. 

In  1892  I  went  out  from  Indianapolis  with  McKinley, 
when  he  made  his  famous  tin-plate  speech  at  Elwood,  Indi- 
ana. While  he  was  out  looking  at  the  tin-plate  works,  I  had 
to  speak  in  the  opera  house  for  an  hour  while  the  crowd  was 
waiting  for  him  to  come  back.  This  is  a  matter  of  record, 
at  least  in  the  minds  of  those  who  have  survived. 

I  went  out  with  President  Harrison  into  James  W^hit- 
comb  Riley's  county  and  made  three  speeches.  I  spoke 
after  Mr.  Harrison  in  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  and 
then  had  to  go  on  to  FortviUe  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
county,  on  the  Big  Four,  to  hold  the  crowd  until  the  Gen- 
eral came  in.  It  was  the  hardest  day's  work  of  my  life. 
Mr.  Harrison  was  billed  to  arrive  at  FortviUe  at  nine  o'clock 
and  I  started  to  speak  at  eight  o'clock,  and  he  didn't  get  in 
until  eleven  o'clock.  I  had  four  or  five  thousand  people 
waiting  for  him,  and  I  think  I  told  them  everything  I  knew 
— and  then  some.  .    ^^ 

Two  brothers  by  the  names  of  Timothy  and  Thomas 
O'Mahoney  originally  owned  the  Cornelius  farm  at  Straw- 
town,  which  I  mentioned  in  my  first  letter,  and  where  I  re- 
ceived my  first  education  in  practical  farming  and  raising 
thoroughbred  live  stock.  They  were  offered  a  big  price  by 
the  live  man  who  came  from  Wayne  County.     Timothy 


44  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

married  after  he  came  to  this  country,  a  first  cousin  to  my 
father,  Catherine  Shiel,  daughter  of  Mike  Shiel,  a  Justice  of 
the  Peace  generally  known  as  General  Shiel,  at  Shielville, 
Indiana,  and  who  had  the  first  general  merchandise  store 
there. 

The  O'Mahoney  brothers  heard  of  the  cheap  lands  in 
Illinois  and  went  "West  to  seek  a  new  home.  Timothy 
bought  some  three  or  four  hundred  acres,  a  mile  or  two  west 
of  Lake  Forrest ;  he  also  bought  seventy  acres  on  the  Lake 
at  $1.25  per  acre — ^timber  land  which  he  bought  mostly  for 
fire  wood.  Thomas  went  some  three  miles  west  of  Wauke- 
gon,  and  bought  prairie  land.  It  all  looked  alike  to  them, 
but  would  not  produce  twenty  bushels  of  com  to  the  acre. 
It  was  grass  land,  and  not  the  best  of  that  kind  of  land. 
They  were  hunting  for  locations  close  to  the  Church — most 
of  these  families  are  strong  in  the  Church  and  now  several 
of  them  are  in  convents.  They  all  sent  their  children  to  col- 
leges. My  cousin 's  oldest  son  Thomas  was  for  a  number  of 
years  Professor  of  Languages  in  Notre  Dame  University,  In- 
diana, and  has  been  a  member  of  the  Legislature  in  Colo- 
rado. 

Now,  this  farm  land  which  they  bought  is  not  worth 
much  more  at  the  present  time  than  it  was  years  ago.  It 
can  be  used  only  for  dairy  purposes;  while  the  seventy 
acres  of  timber  land,  originally  bought  for  fire  wood,  near 
Lake  Forest,  the  O'Mahoney  heirs  sold  for  $70,000.00,  and 
then  at  a  sacrifice.  Had  they  drifted  into  the  prairies  of 
central  Illinois,  Iowa,  Kansas  or  Nebraska,  and  bought 
lands  there,  the  land  would  be  worth  today  $125.00  to 
$150.00  per  acre;  but  the  early  O'Mahoneys  could  not  see 
the  value  of  the  blue  grass  land  that  they  owned  near  Straw- 
town. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  45 

Back  during  the  years  '73  and  '74  the  grasshoppers  were 
a  godsend,  in  a  way,  to  the  people  of  southern  Indiana, 
southern  Illinois,  Kentucky  and  also  Ohio.  The  same  year 
the  grasshoppers  cleaned  out  Kansas ;  that  is,  ate  all  of  the 
vegetation  in  Kansas.  The  farmers  had  to  get  rid  of  all 
their  stock  in  some  way,  and  I  presume  that  I  handled  as 
many  as  eight  or  ten  thousand  head  and  sold  as  many  as 
ten  thousand  to  twenty  thousand  head  to  go  into  southern 
Indiana  and  Ohio.  The  crops  of  corn  were  very  heavy  that 
same  year  in  southern  Indiana,  Kentucky  and  Ohio.  The 
stock  was  all  of  the  highest  grade,  from  big  hogs  weighing 
three  hundred  pounds  to  pigs  weighing  five  pounds.  It  was 
a  remarkable  fact  that  there  was  no  cholera  that  year.  The 
farmers  drove  off  everything  they  had  on  the  farms  and  put 
them  in  the  cars,  billing  them  to  me  at  Indianapolis,  and  to 
others  who  were  engaged  in  the  same  commission  business, 
and  the  farmers  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  around 
here  would  come  in  to  get  them  for  stockers.  We  classified 
them.  Some  would  buj^  the  little  pigs,  others  would  buy 
the- big  old  brood  sows,  and  in  that  way  they  bettered  the 
stock  and  did  away  with  the  razor-backs  that  they  had,  es- 
pecially in  southern  Indiana,  Illinois  and  Ohio.  The  same 
may  be  said  of  Kentucky. 

Kansas  was  settled  after  the  War  with  the  live  men  who 
had  been  in  the  army,  and  who  did  not  buy  anything  but 
thoroughbred  stock ;  and  this  will  explain  why  Kansas  as  a 
State  is  equal  to  or  better  than  any  other  State  in  the  Union 
in  the  production  of  live  stock. 

Note  what  Mr.  S.  F.  Lockridge,  former  State  Senator, 
has  to  say  in  regard  to  Indiana  Colleges  and  their  lack  of 
facilities,  with  the  exception  of  Purdue,  for  the  education 
of  scientific  farmers  and  stock  raisers.    Bloomington  Col- 


46  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

lege,  the  Indiana  University,  educates  lawyers,  doctors  and 
ministers  and  has  no  bearing  whatever  on  farming  or  agri- 
culture. 

Asbury,  or  what  is  now  DePauw  University — note  what 
Mr.  Lockridge  says  on  this  college.  He  is  a  little  preju- 
diced, as  he  graduated  there  some  forty  years  ago. 

Wabash  College,  Montgomery  county,  is  a  similar  char- 
acter of  college.  That  county  went  clear  ahead,  notwith- 
standing. 

St.  Joseph's  College  in  Jasper  county  is  a  classical  and 
theological  institution  and  therefore  does  not  aim  to  edu- 
cate for  farming  and  stock  raising. 

Notre  Dame  University  is  one  of  the  very  best,  yet  they 
have  no  agricultural  department,  as  they  ought  to  have. 

Earlham  College,  which  is  a  Quaker  institution,  in  Dud- 
ley Foulke  's  county,  while  a  very  good  college,  has  not  made 
much  progress  in  the  last  thirty  years. 

Purdue  College  is  up-to-date  and  should  be  encouraged. 
To  my  astonishment,  when  I  attended  the  Commencement 
last  fall,  the  Board  of  Directors,  half  of  them  old-timers, 
''ploAving  with  the  old  wooden  mold-board,"  had  a  meet- 
ing. They  said  that  they  were  paying  their  President 
$5,000  a  year.  I  asked  them  what  kind  of  a  man  they  could 
get  for  $5,000  a  year,  and  they  said  that  they  had  no  more 
money  to  pay  with.  I  said  that  the  President  of  a  college, 
where  twenty-two  hundred  students  were  educated  in  the 
most  essential  education  that  could  possibly  be  given  them, 
ought  to  be  paid  more  than  $5,000.  But  I  found  that  all  of 
the  other  instructors  in  this  college  received  salaries  in 
proportion.  I  said  it  was  wonderful  how  they  could  get 
such  results  as  they  are  getting  without  paying  more  for 


With  the  Beef  Trust  47 

them.  They  said  the  State  would  not  appropriate  more  for 
their  support. 

To  my  mind,  the  Government  could  not  do  a  better  thing 
than  to  appropriate  some  support  to  such  a  college  as  Pur- 
due, and  help  to  establish  other  similar  universities.  The 
fact  is,  every  county  ought  to  have  one  like  it,  to  educate 
the  farmer  to  know  the  kind  of  stock  (just  as  Cornelius  edu- 
cated me  at  Strawtown),  to  know  how  much  meat  you  can 
get  out  of  a  bullock,  hog  or  sheep;  what  kind  of  seed  to 
plant;  what  kind  of  fruits  to  grow.  Teach  the  boy  who 
spends  his  time  fishing  to  give  part  of  his  time  to  taking  care 
of  the  trees,  grapevines,  chickens,  ducks  and  geese,  and  en- 
courage the  farmers  who  send  their  sons  to  college  to  have 
them  educated  in  practical  and  scientific  farming,  rather 
than  attempt  to  make  doctors  and  lawyers  out  of  all  of  them, 

Purdue  College  is  the  only  college  that  is  really  placing 
the  farmer  in  the  class  where  he  belongs.  There  is  an  over- 
production of  the  other  professions  from  the  other  colleges. 
Purdue  has  no  support  outside  of  the  little  that  the  State 
gives  it.  It  is  a  fact  that  the  lawyers  and  doctors  of  the 
other  colleges  are  better  lobbyists  in  the  Legislature  than 
are  the  farmers. 

The  fact  is,  that  it  is  a  great  ambition  for  the  farmer 
with  a  hundred  or  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land  and  who 
has  made  some  money,  to  make  a  doctor,  la^vyer  or  minister 
out  of  his  son,  rushing  him  off  to  that  kind  of  a  college, 
where  he  is  vaccinated  in  the  profession,  but  in  nine  cases 
out  of  ten  the  vaccination  does  not ' '  take, ' '  and  he  is  a  fail- 
ure ;  while  if  he  had  been  educated  in  farming  and  taught 
the  motto  ''Early  to  bed  and  early  to  rise,"  he  would  have 
probably  made  a  much  better  and  more  successful  man,  a 


48  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

credit  to  his  father  and  to  his  community.  There  is  not  one 
doctor  out  of  a  hundred  who  really  succeeds  in  his  profes- 
sion; not  one  out  of  a  hundred  lawyers  succeeds,  and  the 
same  might  be  said  of  the  ministers. 

Many  of  these  sons  of  wealthy  farmers,  thrown  in  con- 
tact at  the  college  with  sons  of  the  rich  men  from  the 
cities,  who  are  sent  there  to  become  doctors  or  law^^ers,  be- 
come extravagant  and  careless,  depending  upon  their 
father's  wealth  to  keep  them.  They  may,  perhaps,  gamble 
in  Chicago  options  until,  in  other  words,  the  sons  break  the 
fathers.  But  the  men  whom  I  will  mention  in  this  brief, 
have  got  the  original  land  that  their  fathers  left  them,  and 
have  hung  on  to  it.  None  of  them  ever  dealt  in  Chicago 
options.  Pity  the  foolish  man  who  goes  up  against  ' '  three- 
card  monte,"  or  against  another  man's  game,  and  thinks 
because  there  is  a  failure  of  crops  in  his  immediate  neigh- 
borhood, that  the  prices  are  going  up,  or,  if  he  has  a  big 
crop,  they  are  going  down  and  sells  or  buys  on  what  the 
market  is  going  to  be,  in  his  judgment  of  the  crops. 

Right  here  I  want  you  to  note  that  the  Graham  family  is 
a  notable  exception  to  this — the  father  has  made  the  sons, 
and  the  sons  have  not  ruined  the  father.  Their  father  was 
one  of  the  very  best  friends  I  ever  had,  and  I  often  talked 
to  him  about  his  four  boys.  They  have  succeeded  in  the 
line  of  their  profession  and  are  right  up-to-date,  all  four  of 
them.  They  were  ''vaccinated"  and  the  vaccination 
''took." 

Thomas  Graham  was  a  successful  business  man  and  he 
made  thorough  business  men  out  of  two  of  his  sons  and  pro- 
fessional men  of  the  other  two,  who  are  now  at  the  head  of 
the  column.     There  is  no  man  whom  I  knew  better  in  busi- 


With  the  Beef  Trust  49 

ness  life  than  Thomas  Grahani ;  one  of  the  noblest  works  of 
God — '  *  an  honest  man ; ' '  and  he  taught  his  four  sons  to  live 
the  same  kind  of  life  that  he  lived. 

It  will  not  be  expected  that  I  spend  much  time  on  the 
men  whom  I  am  naming  in  this  brief,  but  all  of  them  are  of 
the  same  high  character.  I  mention  Mr.  Graham  especially 
as  a  man  who  had  two  of  his  sons  take  up  a  profession  and 
make  a  success  of  it,  while  there  are  hundreds,  yes,  thou- 
sands of  high-class,  successful  business  men  who  have  put 
their  sons  into  professions  and  those  sons  have  not  made  a 
success  of  it. 

I  have  often  heard  Thomas  Graham  say  "Early  to  bed 
and  early  to  rise"  is  the  secret  of  his  success,  and  the  boys 
all  say  that  their  father  had  them  up  at  five  o  'clock  break- 
fast; and  all  of  them,  even  the  minister,  now  that  their 
father  is  dead,  continue  to  get  up  early,  having  formed  the 
habit.  He  is  one  of  the  best  ministers  in  Dudley  Foulke's 
town.  They  do  not  know  much  farming,  but  they  do  know 
much  about  the  business  and  profession  to  which  they  have 
applied  themselves. 

Now  I  want  to  invite  attention  to  the  progress  that  has 
been  made,  and  can  still  be  made,  with  the  proper  support 
and  appropriations  in  the  way  of  ditching,  drainage  and 
reclaiming  of  otherwise  worthless  lands  in  Indiana,  Illinois 
and  Ohio.  Note  particularly  what  Judge  Timothy  B. 
Howard  has  said  about  the  Kankakee  lands.  He  is  one  of 
the  ablest  men  Indiana  has  produced.  He  is  now  about 
seventy  years  old.  He  was  a  good  soldier  during  the  War, 
and  since  the  War  has  been  a  Professor  at  Notre  Dame  Uni- 
veristy,  has  twice  held  a  seat  on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme 


[4] 


50  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

Court  of  Indiana  and  has  been  a  member  of  both  the  House 
and  Senate. 

Another  man  about  whom  I  wish  to  make  special  men- 
tion is  Franklin  Landers.  He  was  one  of  the  original 
farmers  owning  several  thousand  acres  of  land  in  Morgan 
county,  the  next  county  to  this.  In  74  he  was  one  of  the 
very  best  farmers  Indiana  had  produced  on  White  River, 
some  fifteen  miles  below  Indianapolis;  but  he  got  into 
polities,  and  into  the  National  House  of  Representatives  (he 
having  run  for  Congress  against  General  John  Coburn,  one 
of  the  ablest  congressmen  this  district  ever  had,  and  beat 
him) .  This  ruined  Landers,  and  diverted  him  somewhat  from 
farming;  yet  when  he  died,  a  few  years  ago,  he  left  his 
heirs  one  thousand  acres  of  the  best  river  bottom  land, 
which  he  had  protected  with  a  levee  of  about  two  miles.  If 
this  land  had  not  been  so  protected,  it  would  be  worthless 
for  farming,  as  it  would  have  been  all  cut  up  by  the  river 
breaking  through  it. 

The  channel  of  White  River  in  Indianapolis  has  changed 
in  the  forty  years  that  I  have  been  here.  Unless  protected 
by  levees,  rivers  change  their  course  often.  Mr.  Landers 
was  one  of  those  who  made  the  fight  in  the  Legislature,  at 
the  time  Judge  Howard  speaks  about,  for  an  appropriation 
to  drain  the  Kankakee.  He  owned  at  that  time  5,000  acres 
of  Kankakee  land. 

Note  what  Mr.  Smith  says  about  reclaiming  land  in 
Greene  county.  Note,  also,  Morgan  and  Putnam  coun- 
ties, the  latter  of  which  is  Senator  Beveridge's  county. 
There  is  one  ditch  in  Putnam  and  adjoining  counties  which 
cost  $80,000,  built  in  the  last  few  years,  which  reclaimed  and 
improved  fifty  thousand  acres,  while  fifteen  thousand  acres 


With  the  Beef  Tbust  51 

were  assessed  for  the  benefits.  A  number  of  men  have  been 
benefited  by  these  ditches,  who  will  not  allow  their  names  to 
be  used,  as  they  say  that  it  would  put  land  which  they  had 
bought  for  $2.00  or  $10.00  per  acre,  up  to  $100  and  $150 
per  acre,  and  they  do  not  want  their  names  mentioned,  as 
their  tax  assessment  would  be  raised  accordingly. 

Levees,  ditching,  cutting  down  elm  and  beech  trees  that 
shade  the  blue  grass,  are  some  of  the  things  that  would  be  of 
the  greatest  benefit.  Not  only  is  this  true  in  Indiana  and 
Ohio,  but  the  same  could  be  said  of  many  sections  all  over 
the  country. 

Note  particularly  the  work  of  Mr.  Brevort,  of  Vincennes. 
The  Wabash  River  overflowed  all  below  Vincennes.  Mr. 
Brevort  was  one  of  the  very  best  farmers  in  Indiana.  He 
commenced  right  outside  the  corporation  of  Vincennes,  built 
a  levee  of  ten  miles  some  years  ago,  and  reclaimed  something 
like  ten  thousand  acres,  which  is  now  the  most  fertile  land 
in  Indiana.  When  the  Wabash  is  high,  it  backs  in,  but  that 
improves  the  land.  He  built  the  levee  high  enough  so  that 
the  river  wiU  not  overflow  at  any  place.  He  informs  me 
that  last  year  he  had  four  hundred  acres  of  alfalfa,  from 
which  he  gathered  four  crops ;  and  to  my  mind,  if  the  Gov- 
ernment would  not  undertake  to  build  up  navigation  for 
streams  and  run  steamboats  on  rivers  where  there  is  prob- 
ably not  water  enough  to  carry  away  the  sewage,  and  spend 
the  same  amount  of  money  for  the  building  of  levees  to  hold 
the  river  in  its  banks,  it  would  be  farther  reaching  in  the 
way  of  general  betterment. 

•  Petitions  are  being  circulated  at  points  along  the  Wa- 
bash River,  which  will  be  presented  to  Congress,  asking  for 
an  appropriation  to  be  used  in  making  the  Wabash  a  navi- 


52  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

gable  stream  from  its  source  to  its  mouth.  The  Government 
has  expended  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  in  a  useless 
effort  to  improve  the  Wabash,  and  millions  may  be  appro- 
priated by  Congress  and  spent  in  the  same  manner  again, 
and  in  a  few  years  we  will  have  the  same  results.  The  Gov- 
ernment can  afford  to  expend  money  on  the  Chicago  canal, 
the  Big  Sandy  and  Kentucky  Rivers,  the  Green  River,  Cum- 
berland and  Tennessee  and  Ohio,  as  they  are  not  paralleled 
by  railroads  as  is  the  Wabash,  and  they  lead  into  the  coal 
and  iron  fields. 

If  Indiana  Congressmen  and  Senators  would  aid  in  get- 
ting appropriations  from  the  Government  to  help  drain  the 
Kankakee  and  some  other  swamps  in  Indiana,  then  help 
Illinois  to  get  its  canal,  they  would  look  better  to  me. 

Note  the  things  said  of  Watson's  district,  which  is  one 
of  the  very  best  districts  in  Indiana,  and  his  county  is  the 
best  county  in  the  State  for  hogs,  and  was  for  cattle.  Note, 
also,  what  Mr.  Mull  says  about  that  county. 

Read  what  Mr.  Smith  says  about  Franklin  county.  It 
is  a  hilly  county  and  the  only  poor  county  in  Watson 's  dis- 
trict; but  it  would  not  be  poor  if  they  followed  what  Mr. 
Smith  is  doing  down  there.  To  my  mind  it  is  one  of  the 
very  best  counties,  and  less  than  forty  miles  from  Cin- 
cinnati. 

One  great  trouble  with  Congressmen  and  Senators  is: 
''You  help  me  and  I  will  help  you."  The  same  may  be  said 
of  the  State  Legislature.  One  wants  a  dog  law  passed,  an- 
other a  ditch  law,  and  another  a  school  law,  and  they  under- 
take to  lobby  through  the  things  which  are  of  interest  only 
to  their  immediate  locality. 

See  what  Mr.  Morgan  has  to  say.     He  and  his  two 


With  the  Beef  Trust  53 

brothers  own  the  ten  to  fifteen  thousand  acres  of  land  their 
father  left  and  have  bought  more,  I  bought  for  Timothy 
Eastman  at  one  time  a  train  load  of  live  stock  from  his 
father.  It  was  the  largest  check  I  ever  issued,  $55,500.00, 
to  a  farmer  at  one  turn. 

I  would  call  attention  to  what  Mr.  Lee  Sinclair  has  to 
say.  He  is  the  greatest  benefactor  in  the  way  of  promoting 
and  building  the  most  magnificent  health  resort  in  the 
world.  By  cutting  down  a  large  part  of  the  timber  on  his 
500  acres  in  Orange  county,  he  has  demonstrated  that 
blue  grass  can  be  grown  all  over  this  State.  Twenty 
or  thirty  years  ago  I  was  in  Orange  county  and  saw  as 
many  as  forty  or  fifty  ox-teams  coming  in  out  of  the  hills 
to  a  Fourth  of  July  celebration.  He  has  demonstrated  that 
blue  grass  wUl  grow  on  those  hills,  if  the  underbrush  is 
cut.  I  have  visited  Sinclair  at  West  Baden  twice  a  year  for 
the  last  twenty  years.  I  always  find  him  up  at  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning;  he  always  goes  to  bed  at  nine.  His  motto, 
too,  is  ' '  Early  to  bed  and  early  to  rise. ' '  His  hotel  covers 
several  acres,  contains  780  rooms,  all  connected  with  baths, 
and  thoroughly  fireproof,  as  it  is  built  of  brick,  steel  and 
concrete. 

I  want  to  speak  of  "Blue  Jeans"  Williams,  or  Governor 
Williams,  who  in  '76  beat  Benjamin  Harrison  for  Governor. 
He  was  one  of  the  very  best  farmers  and  one  of  the  very 
best  men  Indiana  has  ever  produced,  breeding  good  stock. 
While  Governor  he  built  one  of  the  very  best  State  Houses 
in  the  country  on  an  appropriation  of  $2,000,000,  and  had 
$200,000  left  after  he  completed  it.  He  looked  after  it  him- 
self. He  also  had  an  excellent  Board  that  was  seeing 
after  it. 


54  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

Governor  Williams,  or  ''Blue jeans"  Williams,  as  he  was 
commonly  called,  was  one  of  the  best  Governors  Indiana 
ever  had.  He  was  a  renowned  breeder  of  live  stock  in  his 
time  in  and  about  Vincennes,  Knox  county,  where,  as  I 
have  already  said,  Mr.  Brevort  built  ten  miles  of  levee,  be- 
ginning close  to  the  city  of  Vincennes,  and  reclaimed  some- 
thing like  six  to  ten  thousand  acres  of  land. 

CONDITIONS  IN   ILLINOIS. 

I  have  to  take  in  Illinois  in  this  brief,  as  central  Illinois 
has  been  a  great  producer  of  live  stock  for  years,  and  has 
had  in  a  way  a  better  grade  of  stock  than  either  Indiana  or 
Ohio.  I  speak  especially  of  Speaker  Cannon's  district,  and 
in  fact,  include  all  of  the  districts  back  to  the  Mississippi 
River  in  the  central  part  of  the  State. 

The  best  feeder  I  ever  knew  was  Mr.  Pinnell,  and  his  live 
stock  have  talven  premiums  practically  at  all  fancy  live  stock 
shows,  his  cattle  selling  at  the  highest  prices  at  all  of  the 
stock  sales.  It  is  about  forty  years  since  I  bought  the  first 
fourteen  hundred  head  of  hogs  of  him — it  was  in  June  that 
I  took  them — at  the  time  that  live-stock  men  first  com- 
menced handling  summer  hogs.  Prior  to  that  time  there 
had  been  very  few  or  no  hogs  handled  during  the  summer. 

To  my  utter  astonishment,  when  he  took  me  out  to  his 
place  to  dinner,  he  had  ice  cream,  a  thing  practically  un- 
known to  a  farmer  at  that  time.  He  had  dinner  served  al- 
most equal  to  that  you  would  get  today  in  one  of  the  good 
hotels  in  the  city  of  New  York.  He  always  lived  up  to  date 
and  a  little  ahead  of  time. 

I  stood  at  the  side  of  Richard  Webber  at  the  Pittsburg 
stock  show,  about  eight  years  ago,  and  also  in  Chicago,  and 


With  the  Beef  Trust  55 

had  Mr.  Webber  buy  the  Pinnell  cattle  at  eight  and  nine 
cents  a  pound,  while  other  cattle  were  selling  at  five  and 
six  cents.  Webber  wanted  to  know  if  that  was  the  best  load 
— he  always  said  he  wanted  the  best  load,  for  he  always 
bought  the  best  cattle. 

I  could  mention  a  hundred  of  these  men  in  Indiana; 
twenty-five  or  thirty  in  Ohio  and  a  hundred  in  Illinois — 
notably  the  Braggs  in  Douglas  county;  Kenyon,  of  Logan 
county;  Harris,  of  Champaign  county;  Groves  and  Moss, 
of  Vermillion  county;  Carney  and  Shepard,  of  Moultrie 
county;  Bealls,  of  Coles  county;  Newlins,  of  Crawford 
county,  and  Fugate,  of  Clark  county.  The  fact  is  there 
was  not  a  man  living  in  Illinois  from  the  Mississippi  River 
to  the  Indiana  line,  back  to  '68  and  '69,  who  fed  a  hundred 
hogs  or  forty  good  cattle  that  I  did  not  know,  or  was  in 
touch  with  at  the  time.  I  was  always  a  judge  on  sweep- 
stakes for  bulls  at  the  State  fairs  in  Illinois,  Indiana  and 
Ohio,  and  at  nearly  all  the  best  county  fairs  in  each  of  those 
States. 

GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS. 

I  will  have  to  refer  again  to  West  Virginia,  for  I  can  see 
there  today  a  very  great  improvement.  Possibly  there  is 
no  State  in  the  Union  that  has  advanced  more  in  the  last 
twenty  or  thirty  years,  in  the  development  of  the  blue 
grass  on  the  hills,  and  the  sheep  and  cattle,  and  has  done 
more  toward  the  breeding  up  from  the  ''knot>head"  and 
''pennyroyal"  cattle  and  the  Merino  sheep  to  the  very 
highest  grade  of  each. 

Also  I  want  to  speak  again  of  the  peasants  of  New  Jer- 
sey. Twenty  to  thirty-five  years  ago  I  was  buying  for  John 
Taylor,  of  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  an  excellent  gentleman, 


56  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

politician  and  many  times  a  Senator.  I  was  shipping  to 
him  from  two  thousand  to  four  thousand  ewes  per  month 
during  the  Summer  and  Fall  months.  These  were  known 
as  Jersey  ewes  from  southern  Indiana  and  southern  Illinois, 
and  some  from  Kentucky.  They  would  weigh  from 
ninety  to  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds,  being  large  in 
size  but  poor  in  wool.  They  brought,  however,  a  large 
lamb.  The  peasants  at  that  time  in  New  Jersey  would  buy 
these  ewes,  one  farmer  buying  five  ewes,  another  ten,  and 
another  perhaps  as  many  as  a  hundred.  They  bought  the 
ewes  to  bring  the  big  lambs,  and  the  lamb  which  would  come 
in  January,  the  farmer  sold  in  February  or  March  to 
butchers  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia  at  a  price  high 
enough  to  pay  for  the  ewe.  Then  they  would  fatten  the 
ewe,  cut  the  wool  off  and  sell  her,  and  would  then  buy  an- 
other ewe  the  next  year. 

John  Taylor  was  one  of  the  earliest  pork  packers  in 
Trenton.  He  also  owned  a  stock  yards.  He  was  one  of  the 
best  men  I  ever  knew,  but  he  played  politics  a  little  on  the 
side,  as  I  have  done. 

Now  I  want  to  speak  briefly  of  a  few  of  the  pioneer 
butchers  and  packers  whom  I  have  done  business  with  in  the 
last  forty  years,  and  who  have  done  more  to  build  up  and 
protect  the  manufacturer  of  high-grade  farm  products  than 
any  other  men.  These  pioneers  have  done  much  towards  en- 
couraging the  farmers  of  the  central  and  western  States,  for 
they  have  drawn  most  of  their  supplies  from  these  raisers  of 
high  grade  live  stock. 

Mr.  John  P.  Squire  was  the  greatest  business  man  this 
country  produced.  "Early  to  bed  and  early  to  rise"  was 
his  motto.     He  would  be  at  his  packing  house  in  the  mom- 


With  the  Beef  Trust  57 

ing  at  half  past  five  or  six  o'clock — before  any  of  his  men. 
Often,  when  I  had  made  a  trip  to  Boston,  especially  to  con- 
fer with  John  P.  Squire,  he  would  invite  me  to  go  to  break- 
fast with  him.  I  generally  stopped  at  the  Parker  House 
and  Young  Hotel  while  in  Boston,  and  many  times  the  stu- 
dents of  Harvard,  who  would  be  banqueting  at  the  hotel, 
would  make  so  much  noise  that  I  would  be  kept  awake  until 
the  early  hours  of  the  morning,  and  then  would  oversleep 
myself,  so  that  I  would  not  be  out  to  meet  old  John  P. 
Squire  and  go  to  five  o'clock  breakfast  with  him. 

This  pioneer,  now  passed  away,  did  for  years  what  Con- 
gress and  the  President  have  done  recently.  He  fought 
adulteration  and  misrepresentation  through  the  State  Legis- 
latures and  at  Washington.  He  was  not  satisfied  to  begin 
work  at  the  factory,  but  began  it  with  the  farmers,  in  the 
purchase  of  their  best  live  stock;  always  paying  the  top 
prices  of  the  market  until  all  of  the  best  farmers  in  Indiana, 
Illinois  and  Ohio  knew  the  "Squire  kind."  And  the  selec- 
tion came  to  be  made  by  sorting  the  stock  at  the  farm  and 
having  it  shipped  direct  to  East  Cambridge  without  passing 
through  the  stock  yards. 

Bishop  Lawrence,  of  Massachusetts,  recentlj^  told  a  story, 
iUustrating  how  well  known  the  name  of  Squire  was  among 
the  farmers  of  the  Middle  West.  In  delivering  an  address 
in  a  small  town  in  Iowa  he  stated  to  his  audience  that  he 
came  from  Cambridge,  Mass.,  remarking:  "I  suppose  you 
have  all  heard  of  Cambridge?"  "Certainly,"  was  the 
ready  response;  "then  you  know  of  the  fame  of  Harvard 
'College?"  There  was  a  silence,  and  the  Bishop,  wonder- 
ingly  inquired :  * '  Never  heard  of  Harvard  College  ?  Then 
whom  do  you  know  there?"  and  as  readily  came  the  re- 


58  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

sponse:  ''John  P.  Squire  and  Company,  we  ship  'em 
hogs.'' 

The  name  of  Squire  is  known  wherever  the  pork  prod- 
ucts of  New  England  are  found.  John  P'.  Squire  is  credited 
as  the  pioneer  of  the  pork  industry,  as  it  is  known  today  in 
Paneuil  Hall  Market,  Boston.  Those  who  early  served  in 
the  business  under  him  are  the  ones  who  stand,  incidentally, 
at  present  as  the  veteran  nork  men  at  the  stalls. 

Mr.  John  P.  Squire,  son  of  Peter  and  Esther  Squire,  was 
born  on  a  farm  in  Weathersfield,  Windsor  county,  Ver- 
mont, May  8,  1819.  His  early  training  and  physical  de- 
velopment were  obtained  in  the  public  school  and  on  the 
farm.  On  the  1st  day  of  May,  1835,  he  entered  the  employ- 
ment of  Mr.  Orvis,  the  village  store-keeper,  at  West  Wind- 
sor, and  remained  with  him  two  years.  In  the  fall  of  1837 
he  attended  the  Academy  at  Unity,  New  Hampshire,  of 
which  Reverend  A.  A.  Miner  was  then  Principal,  and  taught 
school  at  Cavendish  during  a  part  of  that  and  the  following 
winter.  On  the  19th  of  March,  1838,  he  w^ent  to  Boston, 
entered  the  employ  of  "Nathan  Robbins  in  Faneuil  Hall 
Market,  and  continued  with  him  until  May  1,  1842,  when 
he  formed  a  co-partnership  with  Francis  Russell,  who  car- 
ried on  the  provision  business  at  25  Faneuil  Hall  Market, 
under  the  style  of  Russell  and  Squire,  until  the  year  1847, 
when  the  co-partnership  was  dissolved.  Mr.  Squire  then 
continued  the  business  alone,  at  the  same  place,  until  1855, 
when  he  formed  a  new  co-partnership  with  Hiland  Lock- 
wood  and  Edward  D.  Kimball,  under  the  name  of  John  P. 
Squire  &  Co.  The  new  firm  name  and  business  continued 
until  the  year  1892,  when  a  corporation  was  formed  under 
the  laws  of  Massachusetts,  with  the  name  of  The  John  P. 


JOHN  P.  SQUIRE. 


With  the  Beef  Teust  59 

Squire  &  Company  Corporation.  The  changes  in  the  part- 
ners who  were  associated  with  Mr.  Squire  are  as  follows: 
the  retirement  of  Edward  D.  Kimball  in  1866 ;  the  admis- 
sion of  W.  W.  Kimball  in  the  same  year,  and  his  retirement 
in  1873;  the  admission  of  Mr.  Squire's  sons,  George  W. 
and  Frank  0.  Squire  in  1873 ;  the  death  of  Hiland  Lock- 
wood  in  1874 ;  the  retirement  of  George  W.  Squire  in  1876 ; 
the  admission  of  Fred  F.  Squire,  Mr.  Squire's  youngest  son, 
January  1,  1884. 

In  1855  Mr.  Squire  bought  a  small  tract  of  land  in  East 
Cambridge,  and  built  a  slaughter  house  upon  it.  Since  that 
time  the  business  has  grown  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
corporation  has  today  one  of  the  largest  and  best  equipped 
packing-houses  in  the  country,  and  the  corporation  stands 
third  in  the  list  of  pork-packers  in  the  United  States. 

In  1848  Mr.  Squire  moved  to  West  Cambridge,  now 
called  Arlington,  where  he  continued  to  reside  until  his 
death,  January  7,  1893.  When  he  first  went  to  Boston  he 
joined  the  Mercantile  Library  Association,  and  spent  a 
great  deal  of  his  leisure  time  in  reading,  of  which  he  was 
very  fond.  The  position  which  he  held  in  commercial 
circles  was  due  to  his  untiring  industry,  undaunted  courage, 
and  marked  ability. 

In  1843  he  married  Miss  Kate  Green  Orvis,  daughter  of 
his  old  employer;  eleven  children  were  born  of  this  mar- 
riage, viz.:  Charles,  Nellie,  George  W.,  Jennie  C.  (Mrs. 
L.  Fred  Cooke),  Frank  0.,  Mary  E.  (Mrs.  J.  P.  Wyman), 
John  Adams,  Kate  I.  (Mrs.  William  A.  MuUer),  Nannie  K. 
(Mrs.  Walter  L.  Hill),  Fred  F.,  Bessie  E.  (Mrs.  H.  E. 
Holmes.  Of  these  eight  are  now  living,  Charles  having 
died  in  infancy,  Nellie  in  1890  and  Mrs.  Cooke,  September 
21,  1899. 


60  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

The  marketmen  of  Boston  have  always  maintained  their 
good  reputation  in  the  line  of  American  pork.  The  indus- 
try was  represented  in  Faneuil  Hall  Market  very  soon  after 
it  was  established,  although  the  people  raised  their  own 
hogs,  the  most  wealthy  not  failing  to  keep  one  or  more. 
Even  Peter  Faneuil  at  his  estate  on  Tremont  Street  had  his 
stock  of  porkers.  At  the  opening  of  the  market,  in  1826, 
twenty-three  of  the  stalls  were  set  apart  for  the  sale  of  pork, 
being  then  rated  as  next  in  importance  to  the  beef  trade. 

The  progress  made  in  the  business,  is,  to  a  large  degree, 
within  the  memory  of  present  stall-keepers.  When  they  first 
put  out  their  signs,  this  stock  was  largely  obtained  from 
farmers  in  New  England.  Two  or  three  hogs  was  a  large 
stock  to  dispose  of  in  a  day. 

John  P.  Squire's  first  account  book  shows  that  he  began 
business  on  April  30,  1842,  by  buying  two  pigs,  weight  320 
pounds,  at  six  cents;  amount  $19.20.  But  ere  long  the 
greater  part  of  the  pigs  were  from  the  West.  Yet,  as 
there  were  no  facilities  for  packing  pork  in  the  warm  sea- 
son, the  burden  of  the  business  was  done  in  the  cold  weather. 
Hogs  were  slaughtered  in  the  West  and  shipped  to  Boston 
frozen ;  then  business  was  lively,  for  these  frozen  hogs  must 
be  freed  from  frost  before  the  pork  could  be  packed  suc- 
cessfully. But  the  progressive  mind  of  John  P.  Squire  soon 
wearied  of  this  method  of  conducting  business,  and  he  tried 
the  experiment  of  slaughtering  a  hog  in  warm  weather,  and 
cooling  the  flesh  in  a  rude  box,  in  which  it  was  packed  be- 
tween layers  of  ice.  The  supply  of  fresh  pork  every  day 
soon  created  a  demand,  and  there  was  no  longer  a  slack 
season  in  the  pork  business. 

The  improved  facilities  for  cold  storage  contributed  ma- 


With  the  Beef  Trust  61 

terially  to  this  progress,  but,  unlike  beef,  the  pork  business 
has  not  made  a  demand  for  the  refrigerator  cars,  the  stock 
being  brought  to  the  Eastern  market  almost  entirely  alive. 
The  hogs  are  bought  by  agents  from  the  farmers  in  the 
great  corn  belt  of  the  West,  and  herded  at  several  shipping 
centers,  from  which  they  are  brought  to  the  great  slaughter- 
ing houses. 

Involving  as  this  does  the  great  pork-packing  feature  of 
the  business  there  is  included  the  preparation  of  food  for 
every  part  of  the  civilized  globe. 

The  rise  of  the  few  great  pork  industries  has  been  the 
means  of  changing  the  business  of  the  stalls,  confining  them 
more  particularly  to  the  local  trade,  the  supply  coming 
from  these  great  centers,  save  as  now  and  then  a  farmer 
brings  to  market  a  choice  specimen,  which  serves  to  remind 
the  veteran  stall-keepers  of  the  days  when  they  began  busi- 
ness and  looked  to  the  country  farmers  for  a  fancy  York- 
shire or  Suffolk.  Each  department  of  the  market  has  its 
peculiar  feature  and  offers  its  choice  morsel  to  gratify  the 
epicure.  In  the  pork  trade  we  find  the  roaster,  although 
perhaps  more  commonly  handled  by  the  poultry  men. 
Charles  Lamb  claims  the  Chinese  first  introduced  the  idea 
of  roast  pig.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  Boston  palate  was  easily 
trained  to  appreciate  the  delicate  suckling,  "under  a  moon- 
old,  guiltless  as  yet  of  the  stye,  with  none  of  the  hereditary 
failings  of  the  first  parent  yet  manifest,  his  voice  as  yet  not 
broken,  but  sometimes  between  a  childish  treble  and  a 
grumble,  the  mildest  forerunner  of  a  grunt. ' ' 

Mr.  Timothy  Eastman,  of  New  York,  located  at  the  foot 
of  West  60th  Street,  was  possibly  in  a  way  the  equal  of  John 
P.  Squire.     He  exported  the  first  dressed  beef,  and  at  one 


62  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

time  owned  three  or  four  hundred  iDutcher  shops  in  Ireland, 
England  and  Scotland.  I  remember  being  with  Eastman 
one  day,  when  he  had  first  commenced  utilizing  the  blood 
from  the  cattle-  slaughtered,  and  h6  said  that  he  had  made 
$30,000  saving  the  blood  that  heretofore  had  been  running 
into  the  Hudson  River.  He  used  it  to  make  fertilizer  with. 
I  remember  going  home  with  him  at  another  time.  He  had 
a  bucket  with  him.  He  said,  "I  am  fooling  the  old  lady. 
She  is  eating  oleomargarine  and  I  am  calling  it  Connecticut 
butter. ' '  In  other  words,  butter  comes  out  of  the  loin  of  an 
old  cow;  sometimes  from  cows  in  a  diseased  condition, 
goes  through  the  process  of  milking  and  churning  before  it 
reaches  the  consumer,  while  the  oleomargarine  is  manufac- 
tured out  of  the  kidney  tallow  of  a  very  high  grade  steer. 

Eastman  had  an  especial  room  where  he  manufactured 
the  oleomargarine  in  pots  holding  from  20  to  30  pounds. 
It  was  entirely  enclosed  so  as  to  keep  it  sweet  and  clean — - 
sanitary.  You  had  to  go  through  two  or  three  doors  before 
you  got  into  the  enclosed  room.  He  put  a  big  rubber  coat 
on  me  w^hen  I  went  in  there.  He  would  put  his  finger  in 
the  tallow  that  was  being  made  into  the  oleomargarine  and 
would  taste  it,  but  I  couldn't  do  it. 

Thirty-five  years  ago  I  bought  for  as  many  as  fifteen 
packing  houses  located  in  county  seats  on  White  River  from 
Strawtown  to  Vincennes,  small  houses  of  a  similar  char- 
acter to  those  which  have  been  established  and  supported 
by  the  Government  in  Denmark.'  At  that  time  they  made 
kettle-rendered  lard  out  of  the  leaf  lard  and  the  gut  lard 
was  made  into  grease.  There  was  no  refining  of  lard  then. 
No  other  high  grade  lard  but  the  kidney  lard,  or  what  is 
known  as  the  leaf  lard.     Refining  of  lard  has  been  inaugu- 


With  the  Beep  Trust  63 

rated  within  the  last  thirty-five  years,  and  they  have  now 
got  it  to  such  a  point  that  they  can  refine  dead  hogs  into 
lard  sometimes  after  having  been  dead  for  two  days'  time. 
In  Denmark  the  Government  protects  the  people  against  the 
fertilizers  and  trusts,  and  the  adulteration  and  refining  of 
the  inferior  products. 

At  that  time  I  was  buying  hogs  for  Evans  &  Loftin,  at 
Noblesville,  which  is  in  the  county  where  Strawtown  is  lo- 
cated, some  twenty  miles  north  of  here.  Evans  was  then  a 
member  of  Congress.  J.  C.  Ferguson  at  Indianapolis ; 
Coffin,  Wheat,  Fletcher  &  Company,  at  Indianapolis; 
Holmes,  Petit  and  Bradshaw,  at  Indianapolis;  Landis  and 
Givens  at  Indianapolis  and  Kingan  &  Company  at  In- 
dianapolis. All  of  the  smaller  packing  houses  and  a 
number  of  large  butchers  here  have  now  been  absorbed, 
and  there  is  practically  no  house  but  Kingan  &  Com- 
pany in  Indianapolis.  Most  of  them  were  ''broke." 
They  had  been  running  along  in  the  old-time  way 
of  doing  business.  Kingan  &  Company  was  an  Irish  syn- 
dicate, organized  at  Belfast,  moving  ahead  all  -the  time. 
Kingans  are  now  running  three  houses  here,  all  under  their 
original  names  and  yet  they  all  belong  to  Kingan. 

South  of  here  on  the  river  I  bought  for  Parks,  Hender- 
son &  Company,  to  whom  I  shipped  as  many  as  five  hun- 
dred hogs  at  a  time  on  some  days.  I  bought  for  another 
house  at  Gosport  ten  miles  south  of  there ;  one  at  Spencer, 
fifty  miles  south  of  here,  and  another  at  Vincennes. 

We  will  have  to  go  back  to  the  old  way  of  doing  business 
so  that  when  we  go  to  the  shop  after  lard,  we  get  pure  lard, 
and  not  an  adulteration  or  a  refined  grease.  If  we  go  after 
a  soup  bone,  we  get  a  bone  out  of  a  high  grade  steer,  one 


64  Twenty  Years  in  Heli^ 

that  soup  can  be  made  out  of  which  will  be  healthful  and 
nourishing,  and  not  out  of  an  old  canner;  but  to  bring 
this  about,  the  knot-heads  have  got  to  go ;  the  country  is  full 
of  them,  and  there  is  not  one  man  in  a  thousand  who  can 
tell  the  difference  between  a  yearling  high-bred  calf  and  a 
four-year-old  knot-head  of  the  same  color;  or  how  much 
flesh  each  will  take  on  in  the  feeding,  or  can  tell  the  differ- 
ence there  is  in  the  quality  of  the  meat  that  comes  out  of 
the  two. 

Their  customers  always  knew  what  they  were  getting 
from  John  P.  Squire  &  Company  and  Timothy  Eastman, 
but  it  is  impossible  to  tell  nowadays  when  you  are  getting 
the  high  grade  stuff,  when  you  are  buying  from  the  houses 
which  are  killing  this  low-grade  and  knot-head  cattle  and 
live  stock  and  putting  all  kinds  of  stuff  into  the  cans.  Any- 
one ought  to  be  able  to  tell  the  difference  between  the  soup 
made  from  the  bone  of  one  of  these  old  Jerseys  or  canners, 
and  that  made  from  a  high  grade  steer.  People  had  better 
buy  a  bone  out  of  a  good  dog,  or  out  of  a  horse,  or  out  of  a 
mule.  It  would  be  clieaper,  and,  from  a  standpoint  of  good, 
healthy  food,  would  probably  be  better. 

When  fertilizer  men  get  to  operating  packing  houses, 
and  find  that  they  can  put  these  old  canners  and  Jerseys 
into  the  cans  and  sell  them  for  high  grade  products  to  the 
people,  who  can  not  tell  the  difference,  there  ought  to  be 
some  way  to  protect  the  innocent. 

Some  fifteen  or  eighteen  years  ago  I  was  short  an  as- 
sistant at  the  stock  yards.  I  needed  an  experienced  man  to 
inspect  and  to  buy  the  high-grade  stock.  I  employed  a  man 
by  the  name  of  Barney  Trollman,  of  Pittsburg,  to  come  here 
on  Thursdays  and  Fridays,  as  those  were  the  days  that  we 


With  the  Beef  Trust  65 

had  the  heavy  receipts  of  export  cattle  at  the  yards  at  that 
time.  It  run  along  for  some  time.  I  knew  that  he  had  a 
big  trade  in  Philadelphia  of  his  own,  and  at  Pittsburg. 
They  had  the  market  there  generally  on  Mondays  and  Tues- 
days.  We  bought  the  high  grade  export  cattle  for  Timothy 
Eastman  of  New  York,  Joe  Steams,  of  New  York,  M.  Gold- 
smith of  New  York,  Meyer  &  Houseman  of  Baltimore,  E. 
A.  Blackshere  &  Co.  of  Baltimore,  and  Layman  Bros,  of 
Baltimore.  The  fact  is  I  had  a  very  heavy  export  trade. 
To  my  astonishment  I  found  that  Trollman  was  buying 
Jerseys  and  low  grade  cows  in  Jersey  City  and  shipping 
them  back  to  Chicago  to  Nelson  Morris  to  be  canned.  I 
called  him  in  and  told  him  that  that  couldn't  go  on,  as  I 
could  not  be  a  party  to  the  buying  of  caxiners  and  Jerseys, 
or  as  low  a  grade  of  stock  as  that,  and  I  had  to  let  him  go. 

Mr.  Arthur  Jordan,  also,  had  at  one  time  his  head- 
quarters at  Indianapolis.  Some  thirty  years  ago  he  was 
selling  chickens  off  of  the  hind  end  of  a  wagon  in  the  market 
here.  He  went  into  the  poultry  business,  and  a  few  years 
ago  he  sold  out  to  Nelson  Morris  &  Co.  It  was  reported 
that  he  got  $750,000  for  the  stations  he  had  established  in 
Illinois,  Indiana,  Kentucky  and  some  parts  of  Ohio.  Jor- 
dan used  to  sell  poultry  to  Richard  Webber  by  the  car  load. 
He  opened  a  house  in  Boston,  and  in  fact  sold  all  over  the 
East.  Nelson  Morris  wanted  to  operate  these  stations  in 
connection  with  his  packing  house  for  canned  chicken.  I 
suppose  you,  as  well  as  others,  are  well  aware  what  canned 
chicken  is.  The  Jerseys  and  canners  shipped  from  Jersey 
City  to  Chicago  by  Barney  Trollman  had  in  each  and  every 
one  of  them  fifty  to  eighty  pounds  of  canned  chicken. 

You  may  assume  that  I  am  not  stating  facts ;  but  I  can 


66  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

tell  high  grade  cattle,  hogs  or  sheep,  on  the  farm,  the  same 
as  in  the  refrigerator  and  on  the  hook,  and  also  whether  the 
product  came  out  of  a  cow,  heifer  or  steer;  and  I  can  tell 
it  just  as  well  on  the  table  after  it  is  cooked,  and  before  I 
put  hiy  knife  into  it,  and  certainly  any  one  ought  to  be  able 
to  tell  it  after  he  tastes  it.  I  know  the  difference  between 
the  product  of  the  high  grade  steer  and  of  the  Jersey 
and  canner  just  as  well  as  the  experienced  dry  goods  mer- 
chant does  between  calico  and  silk.  I  have  been  thoroughly 
educated  in  it,  and  I  have  spent  at  least  two  months  a  year 
between  Portland,  Maine,  and  Richmond,  Virginia,  counsel- 
ling with  my  customers  and  nearly  freezing  in  their  refrig- 
erators while  inspecting  their  products,  showing  how  they 
could  improve  their  methods.  I  would  find  out  how  the 
Squires  were  doing,  and  would  try  to  educate  the  others  up 
to  their  methods,  for  the  Squires  were  alwaj^s  ahead  of  all 
of  them  in  their  progressiveness. 

Very  few  of  the  farmers  or  feeders  know  that  a  pack- 
ing house  situated  in  New  England,  or  New  York,  or  any 
place  in  the  East  buys  meat  on  the  hooks.  What  should 
be  done  is  to  educate  the  farmers  to  raise  stock  that  will 
make  pounds  of  meat  when  dressed.  There  is  where  their 
profit  is.  There  is  not  one  man  in  forty  or  perhaps  a  hun- 
dred who  can  tell  whether  a  bullock  will  dress  fifty  pounds 
to  the  hundred  or  sixty-five  pounds  to  the  hundred.  Not 
one  in  a  hundred  can  tell  whether  a  hog  will  dress  seventy 
pounds  or  eighty-five  pounds  to  the  hundred.  You  under- 
stand you  can  pay  $6.00  a  hundred  for  one  man's  hogs,  and 
$5.50  for  another  man's;  the  one  lot  of  hogs  will  dress 
eighty-five  per  cent.,  while  the  other  lot  will  dress  only  sixty- 
five  per  cent.,  and  you  readily  see,  that  while  you  pay  a 


With  the  Beef  Trust  67 

higher  price  for  the  better  quality,  the  net  price  of  the  hogs 
is  considerably  cheaper;  and  it  is  this  net  price  that  the 
packer  takes  into  consideration  when  he  names  the  price  to 
one  farmer,  and  another  price  to  another  in  the  same  lo- 
cality. One  is  a  high-grade  feeder,  while  the  other  is  of 
low  grade.  I  wish  you  to  particularly  note  the  facsimile 
dressing  sheets,  such  as  I  have  received  from  John  P.  Squire 
&  Co.,  on  hogs,  which  I  bought  for  them  from  certain  men  in 
certain  localities: 


68 


Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 


Lot  56 


JOHN  P.  SQUIRE  &  COMPANY 

.  .  .  Bought  at  Mt.    Sterling,  O From  E.  O'Day , 


Purchase  date  Dec.  2, 1902 

Arrival   date    Dec.  7, 1002 

Killing  date Dec.  7, 1902 

Weighing   date    Dec.  7, 1902 

No.  of  cars    1  DD 

No.  of  hogs    Shipped 11(5 

No.  died  in  transit     0 

No.  died  in  yards    0 

No.  condemned    0 

No.  short   0.     No.  over 0 

Condition  on  arrival Good 

Billing    Weight 2,.500  lbs. 

No.  killed   

Purchase  cpst  at  G.25. 


o  Brokerage 
o  Exchange 
z  Food 


.$1,588.62 


1.60 


Bedding  or  sand 

Tel.    etc 

£y5  Freight  at  24 

2  J  Feed    at    

Q^cQ  Bedding  or  sand  at. 

'**     Transfer  charges  at. 


60.00 
6.80 
2.20 


Less  value  hogs 
removed  en  route 
No 


20713  $1,659.22 


(Cutting  Weight)  (Total  Cost) 

WEIGHT      AND      SHRINKAGES. 

"  Purchase  Weight    (226)  .  .  .25,418  lbs. 

Arrival  Weight   (total) 23,975  lbs. 

Transit  Shrink   (dead  out)  .   1,443  lbs. 
Per  cent,  of  purchased  wgt.   .0567  p.c. 

Purchased   weight 25,418  lbs. 

Arrival   wgt.    (live) 23,975  lbs. 

Transit  Shrink   (dead  in)..   1,443  lbs. 
Per  cent,  of  purchased  wgt .   .0567  p.c. 

Purchase  Weight 25,418  lbs. 

Killing  weight   21,244  lbs. 

2%  per  cent,  killing  weight      513  lbs. 

Cutting  weight    20,713  lbs. 

Cutting   Shrink    4,705  lbs. 

Per  cent,  of  purchase  wgt,  .    16.07  p.c. 
Remarks. 


Net  cost  dressed  per  lb 0801 


With  the  Beef  Trust 


69 


JOHN  P.  SQUIRE  &  COMPANY 

Lot  8 Bought  at  Urbana,  Ohio From  Thomas  &   Green. 


Purchase  date   Dec.  2, 1902 

Arrival   date    Dec.  7,  1902 

Killing  date Dec.  7, 1902 

Weighing  date Dec.  7,  1902 

No.  of  cars    1  DD 

No.  of  hogs    shipped    117 

No.  died  in  transit   0 

No.  died  in  yards    0 

No.  condemned    0 

No.  short 0.       No.  over 0 

Condition  on  arrival Poor 

Billing   Weight    26,570  lbs. 

No.  killed   117 

Purchase  cost  at  0.25 $1,669.43 


uj  Brokerage    

5  Exchange    

>Food    

"■  Bedding  or  sand. 
Tel.    etc 


Etf5  Freight   at  24.  ....  . 

2d  Feed  at  

o^DQ  Bedding  or  sand  at. 
Transfer  charges  at. 


Less  value  hogs 
removed  en  route 
No 


1.70 


65.10 


.90 


20,143    .$1,742.13 


(Cutting   weight)  (Total  cost) 

WEIGHT      AND      SHRINKAGES. 
Purchase  Weight   (235)  ..  .26, 71  libs. 

Arrival  Weight   (total 23,800 lbs. 

Transit  Shrink  (dead  out)  .   2,911  lbs. 
Per  cent,  of  purchased  wgt.   10.89  p.c. 

Purchased   Weight    26,711  lbs. 

Arrival   wgt.    (live) 23,800  lbs. 

Transit  Shrink   (dead  in)...   2,911  lbs. 
Per  cent,  of  purchased  wgt .    10.89  p.c. 

Purchase  weight    26,711  lbs. 

Killing  Weight    20,659  lbs. 

2%  per  cent,  killing  weight      516  lbs. 

Cutting   weight    20,143  lbs. 

Cutting   Shrink    6,568  lbs. 

Per  cent,  of  purchase  wgt.   24.58  p.c. 
Remarks. 


Net  cost  dressed  per  lb. 


,0864 


70  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

Note,  the  hogs  shipped  from  O'Day  were  a  high  class 
quality  of  stock,  while  the  other  load  shipped  on  the  same 
day  was  of  poor  quality.  The  number  of  hogs  was  practi- 
cally the  same  in  both  loads,  a  double  deck.  The  time  made 
was  the  same  to  the  killing.  The  purchase  cost  of  these  two 
loads  was  the  same  and  the  freight  the  same,  yet  the  0  'Day 
hogs  only  shrank  in  transit  five  per  cent,  against  ten  per 
cent,  for  the  other  load,  and  the  O  'Day  hogs  cut  sixteen  per 
cent,  against  twenty- four  and  a  half  per  cent,  for  the  other 
load.  The  net  cost,  you  see,  for  the  O'Day  hogs  was  $8.01 
per  hundred  against  $8.64  for  the  other  load,  or  a  differ- 
ence of  sixty-three  cents  per  hundred.  Now  you  can 
readily  see  that  when  the  packing  house  would  buy  hogs 
from  O  'Day  the  next  time,  they  could  afford  to  pay  a  better 
price  at  the  farm  to  him,  and  a  lesser  price  to  the  other 
man,  as  they  would  know  absolutely  what  to  expect  from 
each. 

Now,  just  one  point  that  I  want  to  call  attention  to  that 
the  farmers  and  purchasers  of  live  stock  have  to  contend 
with  in  the  shipping  of  the  hogs  from  the  farms  to  the  pack- 
ing house,  and  which,  if  it  could  be  remedied,  would  greatly 
benefit  the  farmer,  the  purchasing  agent  and  the  packer, 
and  that  is,  the  swapping  of  the  hogs  in  the  stock  yards. 
Let  me  cite  a  fact :  Five  years  ago,  when  I  was  shipping 
from  the  farm  to  the  packing  house,  I  bought  one  hundred 
hogs  from  J.  P.  Beall,  Mattoon,  Illinois,  which  made  one 
double-deck  car-load.  These  hogs  were  all  fed  by  one  man, 
Mr.  Dole,  one  of  the  very  best  feeders  in  Coles  county. 
They  were  high  grade  hogs  and  of  uniform  weight.  I  had 
been  having  all  kinds  of  trouble  on  account  of  the  swapping 
of  hogs  in  the  stock  yards  in  Indianapolis.     I  had  taken  it 


With  the  Beef  Trust  71 

up  with  Mr.  H.  S.  Storrs,  General  Superintendent  of  the 
Lake  Shore  Railroad,  to  see  if  it  could  not  be  stopped. 
Storrs  turned  my  correspondence  over  to  Grammer,  an- 
other official,  and  Grammer  in  turn,  turned  it  over  to 
Butcher,  General  Stock  Agent  of  the  New  York  Central 
road.  Mr.  Dutcher  knew  me  and  I  knew  him,  but  we  had 
not  seen  each  other  in  ten  years. 

My  hogs  passed  through  here.  I  put  a  tracer  after  them 
myself,  and  then  went  on  personally.  I  got  out  to  the  yards 
in  Buffalo  very  early  in  the  morning,  so  as  not  to  meet  any 
of  the  men  who  knew  me,  as  I  was  very  well  known  there.  I 
located  the  pen  where  my  hogs  w^ere  unloaded,  and  to  my 
astonishment  I  found  in  my  load  of  fine,  uniform,  three 
hundred  pound  average  hogs,  twenty- two  pigs,  weighing 
something  like  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  pounds  each. 
The  number  of  the  hogs  were  the  same,  tallying  with  the 
number  shipped,  tallying  with  the  number  unloaded  off  the 
cars  at  Buffalo;  but  twenty-two  of  my  fine  hogs  had  been 
taken  out  and  these  twenty-two  pigs  had  been  put  in  their 
place.  I  said  nothing  about  this  at  Buffalo.  I  went  on 
checking  them  out  to  Boston.  The  only  place  that  they 
w^ere  unloaded  en  route  was  at  Buffalo.  I  saw  the  hogs  as 
they  came  off  the  cars  in  Boston,  had  them  checked  off  by 
the  Squire  people,  and  knew  absolutely  that  I  was  right. 
Then  I  went  down  to  New  York.  I  knew^  about  the  time 
that  Mr.  Dutcher  got  to  his  New  York  office.  He  had  been 
the  whole  thing  for  sixty  years  in  connection  with  the  live 
stock  business  of  the  New  York  Central.  The  office  clerk 
said  that  Mr.  Dutcher  had  just  stepped  out,  but  would  be 
back  in  a  few  minutes.  When  he  came  in,  he  let  on  as 
though  he  didn  't  know  me.    Then  he  said :    ' '  Hello,  Rhody, 


72  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

are  you  the  one  who  is  sending  all  of  these  complaints?  I 
ought  to  kick  you  out  of  the  office,  but  I  suppose  that  you 
are  here  for  business."  I  said,  "Yes.  I  have  got  several 
thousand  dollars  in  claims  against  your  railroad  for  slow 
time,  swapping  of  hogs  in  Buffalo  and  deaths  due  to  care- 
lessness, which  I  am  here  1^o  collect — and  I  am  here  for  busi- 
ness."  I  then  related  the  case  of  the  twenty-two  pigs, 
which  had  just  happened.  ''Why,"  he  said,  ''don't  you 
know  that  there  is  not  an  honest  stock- yards  in  the  coun- 
try. I  had  new  keys  made  a  number  of  times  in  the  last 
fifty  or  sixty  years  for  the  New  York  Central  stock  yards' 
pens  and  within  three  days'  time  practically  every  commis- 
sion man  in  the  yards  would  have  duplicate  keys."  He 
said  he  had  had  keys  made  time  and  again  for  the  Buffalo, 
Albany  and  New  York  yards,  which  belonged  to  the  New 
York  Central,  and  that  they  would  get  duplicate  keys  there. 
He  said,  ' '  How  are  we  going  to  stop  it  ? "  I  said  I  would 
stop  it.  I  asked  him  if  the  farmer  was  responsible  for  the 
swapping  of  the  hogs  in  the  yards,  which  he  ships  East — is 
he  not  to  be  protected?  He  knows  his  hogs,  he  has  raised 
them  himself,  and  yet,  when  they  arrive  at  their  destination 
it  is  reported  back  to  him  that  in  the  fine  bunch  of  hogs 
that  he  had  shipped,  every  one  of  which  he  well  knew 
— hogs  which  run  as  uniform  as  eggs — they  had  found 
twenty-two  or  twenty-five  pigs,  as  the  case  might  be.  What 
recourse  has  the  farmer  ?  Who  is  he  to  suspect  ?  Is  he  to 
think  the  house  he  is  shipping  to,  the  John  P.  Squire  and 
Company,  or  some  other  similar  company,  is  dishonest,  and 
be  forced  to  ship  his  hogs  to  a  local  market,  or  a  local  stock 
yards,  where  the  same  thing  would  happen  again  ?  Or  am 
I  responsible  when  I  buy  the  farmer's  hogs  outright  from 


With  the  Beef  Tbust  73 

him  at  his  farm,  know  absolutely  what  I  am  getting  from 
him,  and  then  have  the  house  that  I  am  buying  for  report 
back  to  me  these  pigs,  and  the  heavy  shrinkage  from  the 
original  weights?  The  house  would  soon  lose  confidence  in 
my  representation.  I  asked  him  why  not  have  stock  yards 
where  no  commission  men  could  have  access?  I  said  to 
Mr.  Butcher  in  conclusion,  I  am  here  for  the  purpose  of 
finding  out  if  there  is  not  some  way  that  these  frauds  per- 
.  petrated  in  your  stock  yards  can  be  stopped,  and  I  am  here 
to  collect  the  money  for  the  damages  sustained. 

Then  I  w^ent  home  and  I  put  my  claims  in  against  the 
railroad  company,  and  they  paid  every  one  of  the  claims, 
and  I  haven't  seen  Mr.  Dutcher  since.  He  looked  to  be 
about  sixty  years  old,  although  he  was  about  eighty  at  the 
time. 

Mr.  S.  Henry  Skelton  in  attempting  to  establish  a  pack- 
ing house  in  New  England,  in  opposition  to  the  Beef  Trust, 
is  honest  in  his  purpose  of  supplying  to  the  New  England 
trade  the  high  grade,  unadulterated  products  which  he  had 
furnished  them  for  so  many  years  before  the  North  Com- 
pany, with  whom  he  had  been  associated,  was  absorbed  by 
the  Trust.  He  realizes  the  great  fraud  that  is  being  per- 
petrated upon  the  people  by  the  sale  of  low-grade  products 
and  by  the  advertising  and  selling  of  '* country  sausage" 
and  "country  cured  hams"  as  the  real  article,  when  in  fact 
they  are  the  manufactured  products  of  the  packers,  and  it 
is  his  purpose  to  try  and  enlighten  tlie  people  along  these 
,  lines. 

Mr.  S.  Henry  Skelton  has  been  connected  with  the  pack- 
ing house  business  for  about  forty  years,  or  since  he  was  a 
boy,  and  he  has  traveled  over  many  foreign  countries  in  the 


74  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

interest  of  the  North  Packing  House.  Thirty  years  ago  it 
was  possibly  the  second  largest  packing  house  in  the  United 
States.  The  Squire  House  and  North  House  were  then  the 
two  largest  in  the  country,  especially  for  summer  packing. 
There  is  hardly  a  man  living  who  has  as  much  knowledge  of 
the  trade.  You  will  note  from  the  following  letters  the 
fight  he  is  making  against  the  Trust  in  trying  to  establish 
an  independent  packing  house  in  New  England. 

MR.  SKELTON'S  LETTER  ON  THIS  SUBJECT. 

1014  Beacon  St.,  Brookline, 

March  11,  1909. 

Mr.  R.  R.  Shiel,  Riggs  House,  Washington,  D.  C: 

My  Dear  Sir — I  received  yours  of  the  9th  and  was 
pleased  to  hear  from  you.  I  wish  to  thank  you  for  your 
kind  invitation  to  visit  you  at  Washington  and  nothing 
would  give  me  more  pleasure,  but  at  present  I  have  a  lame 
knee,  which  prevents  me  from  getting  around  very  well 
except  on  crutches,  this  was  from  an  accident  at  the  farm, 
but  I  am  expecting  it  will  be  well  again  shortly. 

I  am  still  working  to  get  a  license  for  packing  house, 
the  Swifts  have  been  able  to  shut  me  out  in  Everett  and 
Chelsea,  but  am  now  going  to  try  another  place,  they  use 
both  money  and  influence  to  prevent  any  independent  plant 
from  getting  a  foothold.  Just  now  the  papers  here  are  full 
of  the  fact  that  they  are  selling  infected  beef  cows  which 
are  condemned  by  the  State  as  having  tuberculosis.  It 
seems  the  New  England  Dressed  Meat  and  Wool  Company, 
a  Swift  concern,  have  a  contract  with  the  State  to  kill  and 
take  tuberculosis  cows,  and  those  which  the  State  inspectors 


With  the  Beef  Trust  75 

say  are  only  slightly  infected  they  have  been  getting  the 
government  stamp  on  as  fit  for  food  and  selling  them  for 
good  meat.  The  Boston  Post,  a  prominent  morning  daily, 
took  the  matter  np  and  the  public  are  up  in  arms  about  it. 
Their  man  Walter  Glidden  is  in  the  governor 's  council,  and 
the  governor  is  getting  into  hot  water  for  allowing  the 
practice  to  continue.  With  all  their  money  and  the  profits 
of  the  big  monopoly  they  are  not  satisfied  unless  they  can 
make  more  money  out  of  this  tainted  beef.  It  will  react  on 
them  by  causing  people  to  eat  less  beef  for  a  time.  En- 
closed is  list  of  plants  the  Swift  people  control  in  New  Eng- 
land, from  which  you  can  see  there  is  not  much  left,  and 
how  bad  the  trade  here  want  an  independent  plant. 

I  will  any  time  give  you  any  information  you  want; 
don't  hesitate  to  ask.     I  could  give  volumes  on  this  Swift 
and  Beef  Trust  workings.     Damage  claims  are  one  of  the 
late  schemes  for  rebates  from  railroad  companies. 
Yours  truly, 
(Signed)  S.  H.  Skelton. 

April  20th,  1909. 
Mr.  R.  R.  Shiel,  Washington,  D.  C: 

Dear  Sir — I  have  your  telegrams  and  letter.  I  have  been 
spending  so  much  time  in  trying  to  get  a  license  within 
reasonable  distance  from  the  market  district  of  Boston  that 
have  not  had  time  for  anything  else.  When  T  think  I  have 
got  what  I  am  after  I  find  the  Trust  influence  and  money 
have  blocked  me,  but  am  still  at  it,  and  am  trying  new  town 
now  where  the  promise  looks  good. 

I  regret  I  have  not  had  the  time  to  put  few  facts  in 
shape  for  you  and  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  offend  my  friends 


76  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

here,  who  in  certain  ways  are  trying  to  help  me.  It  is  the 
advice  of  some  of  these  friends  that  I  should  not  tell  what 
I  know  of  the  forming  of  the  Beef  Monopoly,  as  they  think 
it  might  hurt  me  with  some  of  the  moneyed  interests,  who 
so  strongly  support  the  Swifts  with  money  they  loan  them, 
as  you  know,  notwithstanding  their  $50,000,000  of  capital, 
they  are  still  heavy  borrowers  of  the  banks  and  pri- 
vate capitalists,  and  on  the  whole  I  think  possibly  it  is  best 
for  me,  while  I  am  trying  to  get  back  into  the  business  in  an 
independent  way,  to  keep  still  on  the  subject  of  Swift's 
Beef  Trust  and  monopoly  of  the  food  supply.  You 
will,  of  course,  have  ample  matter  without  my  saying  any 
more  than  I  have  already  said  to  you  in  former  letters,  for 
the  present  at  least. 

Wishing  you  every  success,  with  best  regards. 
Yours  truly, 

S.  Henry  Skelton. 


FRUIT  QUESTION,  ETC. 

On  the  fruit  question  nothing  can  be  more  encouraging 
than  the  situation  as  outlined  by  Mr.  J.  M.  Zion.  He  shows 
what  the  future  holds  for  Indiana  in  this  respect,  and  he 
proves  it  by  citing  his  own  experience  as  a  fruit  raiser  who 
has  banked  heavily  on  the  value  of  Hoosier  soil  and  climate 
for  fruit. 

Captain  Templeton  's  letter  is  well  worthy  of  perusal,  not 
only  because  he  has  been  for  half  a  century  the  largest  in- 
dividual feeder  of  stock  in  Indiana,  but  also  because  of  the 
possibilities — in  fact,  the  certainties — which  he  points  to  as 
the  result  of  intelligent  breeding  and  feeding  of  animals. 


With  the  Beef  Teust  77 

Mr.  Templeton,  like  his  father,  was  born  on  a  farm,  No- 
vember 20,  1829,  and  since  1850  has  beeii  engaged  in  the  live 
stock  business.  In  1853  he  went  to  low^a  and  began  ship- 
ping to  Chicago,  Buffalo  and  New  York.  In  his  early  day 
he  knew  Mr.  Solon  Robinson,  who  was  the  first  man  to  re- 
port the  live  stock  market  in  the  New  York  Tribune.  At 
that  time  5,000  cattle  would  glut  the  market,  and  a  reduc- 
tion of  50  cents  a  hundred  would  cause  it  to  fall.  During 
the  war,  from  a  private  in  the  Third  Iowa  Infantry,  he  rose 
to  the  position  of  Captain  of  Company  F. 

Mr.  McCrea  is  right  in  his  statement  that  the  packers 
should  be  protected  as  well  as  the  farmers,  and  that  inspec- 
tion should  not  be  overlooked  on  the  farm.  The  way  this 
could  be  done  would  be  to  compel  the  farmers  to  get  rid  of 
the  low  grade  and  ''knot-head"  and  "pennyroyal"  cattle, 
and  to  breed  up  their  live  stock.  The  farms  also  should  be 
inspected,  and  when  disease  is  found  among  the  live  stock, 
the  owners  should  be  instructed  in  the  care  and  treatment 
of  the  diseased  animals  so  as  to  obviate  the  spread  of  the 
disease  among  the  others  and  to  prevent  it  from  becoming 
widespread.  This  is  now  done  in  Denmark.  They  should 
also  be  instructed  in  the  care  of  the  sound  animals,  and  in 
the  improvement  of  the  sanitary  condition  of  the  stock. 

You  fully  understand  that  the  Beef  Trust  has  absorbed 
practically  all  of  these  packing  houses  in  the  East  which  I 
have  mentioned  and  which  I  bought  for  for  years,  such  as 
the  John  P.  Squire  &  Co.,  North  Packing  Co.,  and  White, 
Pevey  &  Dexter,  and  that  time  and  again  the  Trust  has 
throttled  the  smaller  dealers  and  many  large  ones,  so  that 
they  have  been  obliged  to  make  the  consumer  suffer. 

I  venture  to  assert  that  every  gentleman  on  the  Com- 


78  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

mission  on  Country  Life  has  had  flaunted  before  him  on  the 
menus  of  not  a  few  first-class  hotels  the  phrases,  "Beech- 
nut Bacon,"  ''Beechnut  Ham,"  etc.  There  is  no  greater 
fraud  than  -this  ignorance  or  deceit  on  the  part  of  hotel 
stewards  and-  proprietors. 

First-class  meat  cannot  be  gotten  out  of  hogs  fed  on  mast 
of  any  kind.  Hogs  fed  on  beechnuts  or  mast  always  sell  in 
New  York  one  to  three  dollars  per  hundred  less  than  corn- 
fed  hogs.  At  present  prices  they  will  sell  three  to  four 
dollars  per  handred  less.  In  Boston  they  won't  use  beech- 
nut fattened  hogs,  as  the  lard  and  bacon  will  run  to  oil. 
They  are  what  is  known  to  the  trade  as  ' '  soft ' '  hogs.  Still 
slop-fed  hogs  run  the  same  and  sell  two  to  three  dollars  less 
than  corn-fed. 


Letters  of  Individual  Expression 


MR.   E.   0 'DAY'S  LETTER. 

London,  Ohio,  December  14,  1908. 
Mr.  R.  R.  Shiel: 

Dear  Sir — ^Your  letter  received  and  in  reply  will  say 
that  blue  grass  seems  to  be  a  natural  production  of  this 
section.  It  has  always  grown  here  as  long  as  I  can  remem- 
ber. I  have  lived  here  all  my  life.  I  am  now  fifty-eight 
years  old.  We  have  now  mostly  the  Shropshire  sheep. 
There  are  still  a  few  Merinos. 

My  father's  name  was  Henry  O'Day.  He  was  born  in 
Fairfield  county,  Ohio,  and  came  to  this  county  (Madison) 
when  about  eighteen  years  old  and  settled  near  Mr.  Ster- 
ling. He  always  lived  on  a  farm  and  did  considerable  in 
the  shipping  business  from  about  1865  to  1880.  He  died 
in  1883. 

I  lived  on  a  farm  till  I  was  thirtj^  years  old.     I  then 
moved  to  London,  having  become  engaged  in  the  shipping 
business,  which  I  have  followed  ever  since  in  connection 
with  looking  after  my  farming  interests. 
Yours  respectfully, 

E.  O'Day. 


MR.  ALEX.  J.  McCREA'S  LETTER. 

Cleveland,  Ohio,  December  28,  1908. 
Mr.  R.  R.  Shiel,  Shiel  Apartment  House,  Indimmpolis,  Ind. : 
My  Dear  Sir — ^Your  favor  of  the  22d,  'with  enclosures 
mentioned,  was  duly  received.     I  also  acknowledge  receipt 

(79) 


80  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

of  a  communication  from  your  Mr.  E.  A.  Byrkit,  enclos- 
ing copy  of  your  letter  under  date  of  November  2d,  to 
President  Roosevelt. 

Most  gladly  would  I  comply  with  your  request  to  give 
you  a  comparative  statement  for  the  past  forty  years  of 
general  farm  conditions,  live  stock,  poultry  and  soil  of 
Ohio,  but  I  have  not  sufficient  data  on  hand  to  give"  you  the 
required  information,  neither  can  I  answer  your  other  ques- 
tions about  levees,  drainage,  scientific  farming  and  colleges, 
as  it  would  require  more  time  to  look  up  reference  on  these 
subjects  than  I  can  now  spare. 

In  a  general  way  I  know  that  the  farm  conditions  and 
the  raising  of  cattle,  hogs  and  sheep  in  Ohio  during  the 
•past  forty  years  have  undergone  considerable  changes, 
showing,  in  central  and  southern  sections,  a  large  percent- 
age of  gain  for  betterment  to  date. 

You  speak  of  the  poor  quality  of  "knot-head"  cattle 
and  "razor-back"  hogs  in  some  portions  of  the  South  Cen- 
tral States,  advising  government  intervention  to  bring 
about  the  better  grade  of  cattle  and  swine.  Do  you  think 
if  the  people  of  the  mountainous  regions  of  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky  were  furnished  with  better  animals  for  breeding 
purposes,  that  they  would  give  them  any  better  care  in 
housing  and  feeding  than  they  now  give  to  the  "knot 
heads"  and  "razor-backs"?  Your  article  on  "Conditions 
of  Live  Stock"  in  Denmark  partially  answers  these  ques- 
tions. 

You  commend  the  President  for  his  betterment  of  the 
meat  inspection  law.  It  is  true  that  the  Bureau  of  Animal 
Industry,  under  the  supervision  of  the  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, has  accomplished  wonders  in  the  improvement  of 


With  the  Beef  Trust  81 

conditions  in  raising  cattle,  hogs  and  sheep  in  the  United 
States;  but  the  betterment  has  all  been  for  the  farmer. 
In  the  meat  inspection  law  no  protection  at  all  is  given  the 
packer,  whose  margin  of  profit  under  the  most  favorable 
conditions  is  small.  A  packer  can  give  full  price  for  ani- 
mals that  apparently  look  healthy,  but  which  show  disease, 
or  are  unfit  for  human  food  on  post-mortem  inspection. 
In  this  case  the  loss  falls  entirely  on  the  packer,  and  he 
has  no  redress.  The  meat  inspection  law,  to  be  just, 
should  commence  at  the  farm,  making  it  impossible  and 
unlawful  for  the  producer  of  a  diseased  or  unhealthy  an- 
imal to  offer  the  same  for  sale  for  food  purposes. 

I  have  read  your  letters  and  articles  with  considerable 
interest  and  commend  the  unselfish  spirit  which  animates 
you  to  bring  about  better  conditions  in  the  live  stock  in- 
dustry ;  but  while  you  are  about  it,  I  would  kindly  ask  that 
you  try  to  benefit  the  pacl^er  also,  as  he  is  just  as  necessa.ry 
to  the  consuming  public  as  the  farmer.  An  improvement  in 
the  meat  inspection  laws  is  what  the  packer  ought  to  be 
granted,  and  I  hope  the  same  can  be  embodied  in  your  bill 
when  it  is  introduced. 

You  ask  regarding  myself  and  ancestors.  My  ancestors 
emigrated  from  the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  to  the  north  of 
Ireland.  My  father  emigrated  to  America,  in  1838,  and 
settled  in  Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  where  I  was  born  October  15th, 
1844.  I  came  to  Cleveland  in  September,  1862,  and  went 
to  work  for  C.  J.  Comstock  &  Company.  John  D.  Rocke- 
feller was  keeping  books  at  the  time  for  Comstock  &  Com- 
pany, and  I  was  delegated  to  sweep  out  his  office.  My 
brother  James  was  the  Company.  Afterwards  the  firm 
was  changed  to  Comstock,  McCrea  &  Company.     At  that 

[6] 


82  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

time  Cleveland  was  a  great  beef  packing  center,  and  our 
firm  did  a  large  business  in  packing  cattle  and  hogs  and 
shipping  the  products  principally  to  New  York,  with  con- 
siderable going  up  the  lakes.  There  were  hundreds  of  cattle 
driven  in  by  drovers,  and  grazed  in  the  suburbs  of  Cleve- 
land, waiting  for  chances  to  get  to  the  slaughter  house, 
which  has  all  been  changed. 

In  1867  I  went  to  Omaha  and  worked  for  IMessrs.  Sheely 
Bros.  Co.  They  had  a  contract  to  furnish  salt  pork  for  the 
Indians  quartered  at  Sioux  City.  I,  having  served  my 
time  in  the  packing  house  in  Cleveland,  was  the  only  avail- 
able man  in  Omaha  to  salt  meat,  and  I  claim  to  be  the  first 
one  to  do  the  packing  of  pork  in  Omaha.  I  came  back  to 
Cleveland  and  went  with  Comstock,  McCrea  &  C6mpany. 
I  was  their  purchasing  and  sales  agent  for  five  years,  when 
I  branched  out  with  my  brother  James  under  the  firm 
name  of  James  McCrea  &  Company,  and  later  built  the 
plant  I  am  noAv  in,  known  as  the  Ohio  Provision  Company, 
which  has  been  doing  a  successful  business  since  1882. 

Regarding  the  Rose  brothers :  I  was  told  by  their  old 
foreman,  James  Gerneds,  of  Buffalo,  that  Beajamin,  George 
and  Edward  Rose  came  from  England  to  Buffalo  in  1848 
and  worked  under  Gerneds  in  Bulimore  's  Packing  establish- 
ment. They  afterwards  came  to  Cleveland  and  opened  a 
pork  store  under  the  name  of  Rose  Bros.,  on  Ontario 
street.  Later  Benjamin  withdrew  from  the  firm  and 
started  on  his  own  ''hook,"  taking  in  later  Chauncey  Pren- 
tis,  and  calling  the  firm  Rose  &  Prentis.  Afterwards  Pren- 
tis  withdrew,  and  Benjamin  Rose  incorporated  the  firm 
of  the  Cleveland  Provision  Company,  which  has  done  a  very 
large,  and  I  understand  very  successful  bu>siness.     All  of 


With  the  Beef  Trust  83 

the  three  brothers  mentioned  have  died.     They  were  all 
good  citizens,  and  honorable  competitors. 

With  the  best  wishes  for  your  success  in  this  undertak- 
ing, and  kindest  regards,  I  am,  as  ever. 
Your  sincere  friend, 

Alex.  J.  McCrea. 


MR.    S.    F.    LOCKRIDGE'S  LETTER. 
West  WOOD  Shorthorns, 

S.  F.  LOCKRIDGE,  PROPRIETOR. 

Greencastle,  Ind.,  December  11,  1908. 

Mr.  E.  R.  Shiel: 

Dear  Sir — Your  favor  of  the  5th  inst.,  with  enclosed 
copy  of  letter  from  Secretary  to  Chairman  of  "Commis- 
sion on  Country  Life,"  was  duly  received. 

I  shall  endeavor  to  answer  your  questions  in  the  order 
you  have  stated  them.  In  the  first  place,  from  a  beef  point 
of  view,  I  do  not  believe  the  cattle  of  this  county,  or  of  this 
State,  outside  of  the  pure  bred  herds,  are  as  good  as  they 
were  forty  j^ears  ago.  The  reason  for  this  deterioration  is 
very  apparent  to  any  one  acquainted  with  the  facts.  Up 
to  the  early  seventies  all  the  improvement  in  the  county 
on  the  common  stocks  was  made  by  the  use  of  pure  bred 
Shorthorn  bulls.  Dr.  A.  C.  Stevenson  and  Joseph  Allen, 
of  Greencastle,  imported  Shorthorns  from  Great  Britain 
into  this  county,  in  1853.  Pure  bred  Shorthorn  bulls  had 
been  used  here  for  a  number  of  years  prior  to  that  event. 
The  result  was  that  at  the  period  I  mention,  the  early 
seventies,  we    had  a  class    of  cattle    in  this    county    that 


84  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

showed  all  the  characteristics  of  the  pure  bred  Shorthorn, 
in  other  words  they  were  high  grade  Shorthorns.  Now, 
then,  what  followed.  About  this  time,  1870  to  1872,  began 
the  importation  of  new  breeds  of  cattle  from  Europe.  First 
came  the  Jersey  or  Alderney  from  the  Channel  Islands — 
dairy  cattle  that  had  been  bred  for  ages  from  the  stand- 
point alone  of  milk  and  butter  production.  They  had  none, 
or  very  little,  of  the  beef-making  characteristics.  Our 
American  farmer  with  his  natural  tendency  to  seek  out 
the  new  and  untried,  urged  on  by  his  wife,  who  had  no 
interest  whatever  in  the  beef  proposition,  but  centered  all 
her  ambition  in  the  milk  and  butter  problem,  concluded  he 
could  make  a  ten-strike  by  crossing  his  high  grade  Short- 
horn on  a  Jersey  bull  and  thus  kill  two  birds  with  one 
stone.  The  result  was  unsatisfactory,  as  anyone  with  the 
knowledge  of  the  science  of  breeding  could  have  told  him. 
Instead  of  halting  or  retracing  his  steps,  he  continued  his 
ruinous  policy  by  trying  a  cross  of  Holstein,  another  dairy 
breed,  and  then  still  further  accelerated  his  downward 
course  by  an  infusion  of  Hereford  or  Aberdeen  Angus 
blood,  new  breeds  from  England  and  Scotland,  Naturally 
the  result  of  this  miscegenation  was  a  mongrel  that  could 
not  be  classed  either  with  the  beef  or  milk  breeds,  and  was 
a  losing  proposition  to  everyone  into  whose  hands  he 
chanced  to  fall. 

Such  in  a  great  measure  is  the  type  of  cattle  in  this 
county  today,  and  I  may  also  say  of  the  central  "Western 
States, 

The  best  cattle  for  beef  production  exclusively  will  be 
found  on  the  ranches  of  the  West.  For  a  number  of  years 
past  the  far-sighted  owners  of  the  great  ranges  have  used 


With  the  Beef  Trust  85 

only  pure  bred  bulls  of  the  beef  breeds,  Shorthorn  and 
Hereford,  and  from  their  pastures  only  can  we  obtain 
steers,  in  any  number,  unadulterated  with  the  dairy  breeds. 

What  I  have  said  as  to  the  cattle  of  our  Central  States 
will  apply  also  to  other  breeds  of  domesticated  animals, 
horses,  sheep  and  swine.  They  have  been  crossed  to  such 
an  extent  that  the  characteristics  of  each  have  been  lost 
in  the  heterogeneous  combine. 

You  speak  of  Montgomery  county  as  having  gone 
ahead  of  Monroe  and  Putnam  and  Tippecanoe,  in  each  of 
which  there  is  a  college.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  an  in- 
vestigation would  show  that  Montgomery  county  has  little, 
if  any,  in  improvement  in  live  stock  over  other  counties  of 
the  State,  and  the  universities  in  each,  being  altogether 
literary,  could  in  no  wise  affect  the  live  stock  industry. 
Purdue  University,  being  a  strictly  agricultural  college, 
supported  by  the  State,  and  devoted  to  the  interests  of 
agriculture  and  live  stock  simply,  should  in  the  nature  of 
the  case  excel  purely  literary  colleges  in  the  way  of  farm 
education. 

Strictly  speaking,  blue  grass  was  never  established  in 
Putnam  county,  or  in  Indiana.  It  is  indigenous  to  the 
soil.  Kentucky,  that  has  for  years  been  heralded  as  the 
blue  grass  State  pa?'  excellence,  got  its  first  seed  from  the 
territor^^  of  Indiana  during  the  War  of  1812.  The  soldiers 
from  Kentucky  who  were  fighting  the  Indians  in  the  then 
territory  of  Indiana,  found  the  blue  grass  growing  luxuri- 
antly about  the  deserted  Indian  villages,  and  noting  the 
avidity  with  which  their  horses  partook  of  the  grass, 
stripped  the  seed  from  the  stems  and  carried  it  with  them 
on  their  return  home. 


86  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

I  have  heard  my  grandfather,  who  was  a  soldier  of 
1812,  say  that  near  these  Indian  villages  where  the  forests 
had  been  cleared  and  the  sunlight  admitted,  the  blue  grass 
was  often  found,  to  use  his  own  expression,  "belly  deep  to 
a  horse." 

Some  thirty  odd  years  ago  the  late  Col.  Tom  Bowling, 
of  Terre  Haute,  then  a  member  of  the  State  Board  of 
Agriculture,  related  to  me  the  following  incident:  He 
was  a  great  admirer  of  Henry  Clay,  the  statesman,  and  at 
one  time  paid  Mr,  Clay  a  visit  at  the  latter 's  home  at  Ash- 
land, near  Lexington,  Ky,  Mr.  Clay  was  a  lover  of  fine 
stock,  and  had  made  several  important  importations  of 
cattle  and  horses  from  England.  The  two  men  strolled 
over  the  estate  looking  at  and  admiring  the  live  stock,  and 
finall}^  brought  up  at  the  barn,  where  Colonel  Dowling  no- 
ticed some  very  fine  blue  grass,  cut  and  tied  in  bundles,  as 
was  then  the  custom.  He  expressed  his  thanks  to  Mr.  Clay 
for  the  manner  in  which  he  had  been  entertained,  and 
asked  the  favor  of  taking  home  with  him  some  of  the 
original  Kentucky  blue  grass  seed,  Mr.  Clay  complied 
with  his  request,  but  smiled  as  he  said,  "Do  you  know 
that  Kentucky  got  its  first  blue  grass  seed  from  the  terri- 
tory of  Indiana  at  a  point  near  Fort  Harrison,  just  above 
Terre  Haute,  a  short  time  before  it  became  a  State?" 

.The  late  Prof.  John  Collet,  State  Geologist,  told  me 
about  the  same  time,  that  blue  grass  was  indigenous  to 
Indiana ;  that  its  natural  home  was  a  clay  subsoil  on  a 
limestone  foundation,  and  that  these  conditions  Avere  found 
in  a  perfect  state  in  nineteen  counties  in  Indiana  running 
diagonally  across  the  State  from  the  northwest  to  the 
southeast.      This  belt,   of  course,   would  be  south   of  the 


With  the  Beef  Trust  87 

prairie  lands,  and  Putnam  county  would  be  in  the  heart  of 
it.  While  I  believe  that  blue  g'rass  can  be  successfully 
grown  in  almost  every  State  of  our  Union  with  proper  care 
and  cultivation,  yet  I  think  there  is  no  question  whatever 
that  its  original  home  was  in  our  own  State  of  Indiana. 

My  father,  Andrew  Malone  Tjockridge,  was  born  in 
Montgomery  county,  Ky.,  March  30,  1814.  His  father 
died  when  he  was  twelve  years  old,  leaving  his  widowed 
mother  with  nine  children  of  whom  he  was  the  eldest  son, 
his  brother  Robert,  the  youngest  child,  having  been  bom 
about  the  time  of  his  father's  death.  My  grandfather 
Lockridge,  sometime  before  his  death  in  1826,  had,  by 
entry  and  purchase,  procured  land  in  the  north  part  of 
Putnam  county,  this  State.  In  the  fall  of  1835,  when  my 
father  was  twenty-one  years  of  age,  the  family  moved  from 
Kentucky  to  this  State.  One  of  my  father's  sisters  married 
Mr.  Charles  Bridges,  who  was  the  father  of  William  and 
James  Bridges,  whom  you  probably  knew  in  the  course  of 
yonr  dealings  in  this  county. 

Very  truly  yours, 

S.  F.  Lockridge. 


MR.   JOHN   L.    MORGAN'S   LETTER. 

Marco,  Ind.,  December  17,  1908. 

/?.  R.  Shiel,  Esq.,  Indianapolis,  Tnd.: 

LTy  Dear  Mr,  Shiel — In  reply  to  your  inquiry  as  to  my 
views  on  the  betterment  of  the  live  stock  interest  of  the 
county,  beg  to  say  I  am  heartily  in  accord  with  your  views, 
and  certainly  think  there  is  plenty  of  room  for  the  build- 
ing up  of  all  kinds  of  live  stock  as  well  as  poultry,  etc. 


88  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

When  my  father  came  to  Indiana,  in  1854,  this  par- 
ticular part  of  Indiana,  viz.,  Greene  county,  was  almost  a 
wilderness;  nothing"  but  wild  hogs  three  to  five  years  old, 
frogs  and  malaria.  But  now,  by  the  combined  efforts  of  a 
few  progressive  farmers  in  this  particular  part  of  the 
county  we  have  largely  half  to  thoroughbred  breeds  of 
both  cattle  and  hogs,  and  hogs  that  thirty  years  ago  took 
from  two  and  one-half  to  three  years  to  make  them  weigh 
225  pounds  to  250  pounds  can  now  be  made  to  weigh  above 
at  six  to  eight  months  old,  besides  producing  much  more 
of  the  high-priced  cuts  of  meat,  and  particularly  is  this 
condition  more  noticeable  in  the  scrub  cattle  of  thirty  years 
ago  and  the  thoroughbred  cattle  of  today.  And  all  these 
changes  have  been  brought  about  by  the  united  efforts  of  a 
few  men,  and  no  help  from  either  State  or  Government. 
I  think  it  should  be  a  law  that  no  man  should  be  allowed 
to  keep  a  male  animal  unless  he  be  a  thoroughbred ;  and 
if  that  were  the  case  in  a  few  years  all  our  live  stock  would 
be  of  the  very  best. 

Aside  from  live  stock,  I  am  very  much  interested  in  the 
breeding  up  of  seed  corn  and  other  grains,  and  in  general 
raising  the  standard  of  all  breeds  of  live  stock  as  well  as  all 
agricultural  products.  And  I  do  think  it  would  be  far  bet- 
ter for  the  masses  of  the  .people,  if  the  Government  would 
pay  more  attention  to  the  up-building  of  live  stock,  poultry, 
etc.;  to  the  drainage  of  swamp  lands,  the  building  of 
levees,  etc.,  than  giving  so  much  attention,  and  paying  out 
large  sums  of  money  looking  after  the  fish  and  game  of 
this  country.  It  is  true  the  game  and  fish  should  be  pro- 
tected, but  by  their  protection  does  not  mean  an  increase  of 
productiveness  of  the  soil  nor  an  increase  of  taxes  to  the 
country. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  89 

Less  than  twenty  years  ago  the  first  dredge  ditch  was 
dug  in  Greene  county,  and  now  practically  all  the  swamp 
lands  are  redeemed  and  in  cultivation,  and  land  twenty 
years  ago  that  could  hardly  be  sold  at  any  price  and  when 
it  did  sell  could  be  bought  for  five  to  ten  dollars  per  acre, 
today  is  worth  and  has  ready  sale  at  $125  to  $150  per  acre 
and  is  pajdng  10  per  cent,  interest  on  these  prices.  Thus 
you  see  what  thorough  drainage  will  do.  But  in  redeeming 
all  these  vast  areas  of  swamp  land  it  worked  some  hard- 
ship on  quite  a  few  land  owners,  as  in  many  instances  the 
ditch  assessments  ranged  from  $5  to  $10  per  acre,  and  as 
the  owners  of  these  lands  had  no  income,  they  had  to  sell. 
But  this  has  all  been  done  and  the  present  owners  are  now 
enjoying  the  income  from  fertile  and  productive  lands. 

I  also  think  there  should  be  more  attention  given  to  our 
agricultural  colleges.  We  should  have  educated  raisers  of 
live  stock  and  farmers  as  well  as  educated  lawyers  and 
doctors ;  there  should  be  a  united  effort  to  make  the  farms 
productive,  attractive  and  remunerative,  and  by  so  doing, 
keep  the  ' '  boys  on  the  farm. ' '    With  best  wishes,  I  am, 

Very  truly, 

Jno.  L.  Morgan. 


MR.   W.   I.   S.   PINNELL'S   LETTER. 

Kansas,  III.,  December  7,  1908. 

R.  B.  Shiel,  Indianapolis,  Ind. : 

Dear  Sir — In  reply  to  yours  of  the  5th  inst.,  I  will 
say  my  grandparents  first  settled  in  Culpepper  county, 
Culpepper  Court  House,  Va.  They  removed  about  1812  to 
Oldham,  Ky.,  which  is  about  twenty  miles  south  of  Louis- 


90  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

ville.  In  November,  1830,  I  removed  with  my  father  and 
grandfather  to  Edgar  county,  Illinois,  near  where  I  now 
live.  I  was  two  years  old  at  that  time.  Have  since  lived 
seventy-eight  years  in  this  same  voting  precinct. 

The  weather  at  the  time  we  landed  in  Illinois  was  ex- 
tremely cold,  the  snow  was  two  feet  deep  on  the  level. 
Long  and  tedious  were  the  days  at  that  time  for  these  old 
pioneers — no  money  to  do  with  and  not  much  needed.  It 
was  fierce  settling,  and  everything  was  in  a  wild  state. 
Deer,  turkeys  and  the  much-dreaded  wolf  were  in  abun- 
dance. Fine  timber  and  prairie  grass  grew  prolific.  There 
was  no  grass  here  at  that  time  except  the  w  ild  prairie  grass. 
The  blue  grass  commenced  to  make  its  appearance  shortly 
after  the  settlers  began  to  cultivate  the  soil.  I  would  say, 
about  1840. 

About  my  mother's  people,  I  have  but  little  knowledge, 
except  to  say  my  father  married  mother  in  Kentucky, 
where  I  was  born  November  14,  1828.  Mother's  maiden 
name  was  Frances  Marshall  Estos.  She  was  an  aunt  of 
C.  T.  Estos,  now  a  resident  of  Brockton,  111.  You  wdll 
remember  ''Toot"  Estos — we  all  called  him  by  that  name 
when  we  used  to  be  in  business.  You  well  know  my  three 
sons.  J.  E.  attended  the  N.  W.  C.  University,  your  city, 
for  two  years.  H.  F.  attended  a  business  and  economical 
school  at  Bloomington,  111.,  and  W.  0.  P'.  attended  the 
common  schools  here. 

We  have  noted  with  regret  Richard  Webber's  demise  in 
the  papers.  He  was  the  best  butcher  this  country  has  ever 
known.  He  bought  practically  all  of  our  production  of 
cattle  for  more  than  thirty  years.  It  is  a  great  loss  to  the 
business  to  lose  such  a  man  as  Richard  Webber,  and  also 


With  the  Beef  Trust  91 

Mr.  Eastman,  who  bought  many  of  our  Illinois  cattle. 
He  was  a  grand,  good  man.  No  one  could  palm  Jerseys 
off  on  him.  Also  John  P.  Squire,  of  Boston,  who  has  been 
a  buyer  of  our  hogs  for  more  than  forty  years.  He  was 
known  as  the  greatest  man  in  the  trade  thirty-five  and 
forty  years  ago. 

The  good  feeders  have  always  suffered  by  going  to  the 
market  where  they  have  to  sell  their  stuff  to  men  who  have 
no  judgment  of  the  kinds  and  quality  and  where  commis- 
sion men  in  selling  a  string  of  cattle  force  in  the  sale  of  a 
load  of  Jersey  steers  at  a  higher  price,  by  lowering  the 
price  on  the  man  who  has  the  load  of  high  grade  cattle. 

I  remember  well  the  fourteen  hundred  hogs  that  you 
contracted  of  myself  and  my  cousin  W.  O.  Pinnell.  I 
think  it  was  in  the  year  '68.  Other  men  here  had  hogs 
contracted  for  when  the  decline  came  but  didn't  get  them 
off;  but  you  took  our  hogs  for  which  you  had  contracted 
and  paid  us  the  contract  price  of  $8.75. 

Yours,  truly, 

W.  I.  S.  Pinnell. 


CAPTAIN  LEROY  TEMPLETON'S  LETTER. 
Indianapolis,  Ind,,  December  24,  1908. 
R.  R.  Shiel,  Esq.: 

Sir — Allow  me  to  congratulate  you  on  the  good  work 
you  have  engaged  in,  to  wit,  the  increase  of  the  meat  sup- 
ply, butter,  milk, .  poultry  and  poultry  products — an  in- 
•crease  not  only  as  to  quantity,  but  also  improvement  of  the 
quality. 

Will  our  high-bred  race  horses,  trotters  and  pacers  ever 
excel  Dan  Patch?     Can  our  prize  cattle,  sheep  and  hogs 


92  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

be  still  further  improved?  From  my  experience  and  ob- 
servation of  sixty  years,  together  with  close  study,  I  an- 
swer, "Yes,  without  doubt."  What  has  been  done  in  the 
past  by  individual  effort  in  breeding  high-grade  live  stock 
can  be  greatly  augmented  by  State  aid  in  passing  such 
laws  as  will  put  a  stop  to  the  reproducing  of  low-grade 
animals.  Our  meat  animals  can  be  bred  to  any  type  de- 
sired by  selecting  with  care  in  crossing  the  blood.  High- 
grade  breeding,  together  with  care  in  feeding  to  maturity, 
will  soon  raise  the  percentage  of  good  meat. 

Great  improvement  has  been  made  within  the  last 
twenty  years  in  the  breeding  and  feeding  of  cattle,  sheep 
and  hogs,  and  a  wonderful  increase  has  been  marked  in 
weight  of  our  poultry  of  all  kinds  in  the  last  few  years. 
Less  than  fifty  years  ago  the  horse  called  Dexter  trotted 
and  made  the  first  record  of  a  three-minute  gait.  At  that 
time  it  was  thought  to  be  a  wonderful  thing  for  a  horse  to 
do,  and  that  it  would  probably  never  be  beaten.  Now  at 
this  time  the  best  record  is  under  two  minutes.  If  this 
great  change  can  be  made  in  the  horse  in  and  through 
breeding  and  feeding,  surely  like  results  can  be  obtained 
on  other  lines  in  cattle,  sheep  and  swine.  Nature  study, 
together  with  intelligent  energy  applied  in  breeding  meat 
animals,  cannot  but  result  in  raising  the  standard  of  all 
kinds  of  meat  consumed  by  man. 

I  have  learned  that  the  crossing  of  species  and  selec- 
tion wisely  directed  are  great  and  powerful  means  for  the 
transformation  of  all  life  in  the  animal  kingdom  along 
lines  that  lead  constantly  upward.  The  crossing  of  species 
is  to  me  paramount.  Upon  it,  wisely  directed  and  accom- 
panied by  a  rigid  selection  of  the  best,  and  as  rigid  exclu- 


With  the  Beef  Tkust  93 

sion  of  the  poorest,  rests  the  hope  of  all  progress.  No 
scrub  or  inferior  animal  should  be  allowed  to  reproduce  its 
kind.  Sterilize  all  male  animals  of  low  and  inferior  grade. 
Let  this  be  done  by  authority  of  law  and  made  practical  by 
government  commission.  The  mere  crossing  of  species  un- 
accompanied by  selection,  wise  supervision,  intelligent  care 
and  patience  is  not  likely  to  result  in  marked  good  and 
may  result  in  harm.  Unorganized  effort  is  often  vicious 
in  its  tendencies.  Let  me  lay  stress  on  the  favorable  con- 
ditions now  presented  in  the  United  States,  I  think  it  fair 
to  say  that  we  are  now  on  the  eve  of  enjoying  the  grandest 
opportunity  ever  presented  to  develop  the  finest  meat  ani- 
mals ever  produced  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Let  us 
adopt  the  philosophy  and  teaching  of  our  great  authors  in 
the  science  of  natural  history,  ''Sexual  selection  and  the 
survival  of  the  fittest,"  in  all  our  domestic  animals. 

As  suggested  above,  let  us  all  bend  our  efforts  first  to 
accomplish  this  improvement.  Later  on  we  can  take  up 
production  in  a  wider  sense  and  the  transportation  and 
distribution  of  all  food  products. 

Yours  truly, 

Leroy  Templeton. 


JUDGE  T.  E.  HOWARD'S  LETTER. 

South  Bend,  Ind.,  December  17,  1908. 
Bon.  11.  E.  Shiel,  Indianapolis: 

My  Dear  Sir — Yours  in  reference  to  ''Commission  on 
Country  Life ' '  received.  T  wish  I  had  the  time  to  write  you 
my  views  in  full  as  to  the  important  questions  to  be  con- 
sidered by  that  commission.  The  reclamation  of  our  bar- 
ren hilltops,  comforts  of  farm  life,  and  all  that  concerns  the 


94  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

waste  of  our  vast  natural  wealth  in  connection  with  these 
thing's,  are  entitled  to  the  wisest  thought  of  the  best  minds 
of  America. 

My  duties  as  Dean  of  the  Law  School  of  the  University 
of  Notre  Dame,  however,  so  absorb  my  time  that  I  cannot 
write  to  you  as  I  would.  It  was  my  privilege  while  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Indiana  Senate  to  introduce  and  have  passed 
bills  for  the  removal  of  the  limestone  ledge  in  the  Kankakee 
at  Momence,  a  little  West  of  the  Indiana  line.  Sixty-five 
thousand  dollars  in  all  were  appropriated  from  the  State 
treasury,  and  the  result  of  the  work  has  been  of  immense 
benefit  to  the  million  of  acres  of  our  Kankakee  swamp 
lands.  But  the  work,  although  good,  was  not  sufficient. 
The  rock  obstruction  in  the  river  was  lowered  less  than 
four  feet,  while  it  should  be  to  ten  feet.  It  is  a  work,  in 
its  completeness,  to  be  undertaken  only  by  the  general  gov- 
ment.  Many  acres  of  the  lands  have  been  reclaimed  by 
private  ownership,  in  connection  with  the  work  done  by 
the  State,  and  the  result  is  hundreds  of  acres  of  the  richest 
farming  lands  in  America.  But  the  w^hole  valley  should  be 
reclaimed,  and  we  should  then  have  what  it  has  often  been 
truthfully  claimed  as  the  future  of  this  rich  region — that  it 
is  to  be  ' '  The  Garden  of  Chicago. ' ' 

You  are  doing  a  good  work,  my  dear  Mr.  Shiel,  in  aid- 
ing the  '^ Commission  on  Country  Life"  in  its  mission  for 
bettering  the  condition  of  our  great  rural  population. 

I  have  talked  with  Mr.  Aaron  Jones,  former  President 
of  the  National  Grange,  and  one  of  the  ablest  of  all  Amer- 
ican farmers,  as  to  the  work  you  are  doing,  and  he  fully 
sympathizes  with  you  and  your  work,  and  he  will  write  to 
you  to  say  so.  Very  respectfully  yours, 

Timothy  E.  Howard. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  95 

MR.  JOHN  L.  GREEN'S  LETTER. 

Indianapolis,  December  23,  1908. 

Mr.  R.  n.  Shiel  City: 

Dear  Sir — The  levee  you  ask  about  is  along  the  Wabash 
below  Vincennes,  runnins:  from  the  city  line  along  the  river 
down  to  the  C.  &  V.  R.  R.  bridge,  a  distance  of  about  ten 
to  twelve  miles.  The  railroad  grade  up  to  Vincennes  from 
the  bridge,  and  the  levee  built  along  the  Wabash,  protect 
about  twelve  thousand  acres  of  land,  as  fine  for  corn  and 
wheat  as  can  be  found  anywhere  in  the  State.  This  land, 
before  William  H.  Brevort  built  this  levee  along  the  river, 
could  be  bought  for  $15  to  $35  per  acre,  while  now  it  read- 
ily sells  for  $100  per  acre,  and  some  few  pieces  have  been 
sold  for  $125.  I  can  remember  when  this  land  was  all 
covered  with  water  most  of  the  year.  I  have  spent  most 
of  my  life  there.  I  was  born  there  in  1846  and  lived  there 
until  1894.  My  father,  William  Green,  located  there  in 
1833,  and  his  home  is  there  now.  I  heard  him  say  in  the 
past  two  years  that  nothing  would  do  as  much  good  for 
that  part  of  the  State  as  to  levee  the  Wabash  from  Terre 
Haute  to  the  mouth.  It  would  redeem  enough  land  on  both 
sides  of  the  river  that  the  com  and  wheat  produced  would 
pay  the  cost  in  a  very  few  years.  No  finer  corn  and  wheat 
are  grown  anywhere  than  in  the  Wabash  River  bottoms. 
Knox  county,  Indiana,  and  Lawrence  county,  Illinois,  pro- 
duce as  much  wheat  and  corn,  and  as  fine  in  quality,  as  is 
produced  anywhere. 

I  can  remember  in  younger  days  that  three  to  five  steam- 
boats of  good  size  were  busy  the  year  around  in  hauling 
corn  and  wheat,  covering  the  distance  from  Terre  Haute  to 
the  mouth  of  the  river,  while  now  you  seldom  see  any  boats 


96  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

of  size.  Occasionally  yon  will  see  some  little  boat  with  one 
or  two  barg'es  trying  to  find  water  enough  to  get  along. 
While  there  is  a  great  deal  of  money  being  spent  to  protect 
the  fish  and  game,  why  not  look  to  the  interest  of  the  many 
by  protecting  the  low  land  along  the  river,  and  land  that 
will  increase  in  vahie,  so  the  wheat  and  com  produced  will 
pay  the  cost  in  a  very  few  years? 

William  H.  Brevort,  who  built  this  short  levee  himself 
at  his  expense,  should  have  the  thanks  of  many  a  small 
farmer  who  lives  along  the  river  bank,  and  now  derives 
the  benefit  of  his  work.  There  is  an  effort  being  made  now 
to  build  a  levee  from  what  is  know^n  as  St.  Thomas  over  to 
the  hills  at  Deckers,  on  the  E.  &  T.  H.  R.  R.,  which,  with 
what  has  been  done  by  Brevort,  will  redeem  some  fifty  to 
sixty  thousand  acres  of  as  fine  corn  and  wheat  land  as  can 
be  found  anywhere.  The  same  land  now  is  not  worth  over 
fifty  dollars  an  acre,  while  if  protected  it  would  readily 
sell  for  $100.  I  could  tell  you  of  other  lands  that  would 
be  benefited,  but  think  this  will  give  you  an  idea  of  what 
you  have  asked  me  for.  Yours  truly, 

J.  L.  Green. 


With  the  Beef  Tkust  97 


"WEST  BADEN  SPRINGS  HOTEL. 
^A^EST  BADEN,  IND- 

MR.  LEE  WILEY  SINCLAIR'S  LETTER. 

West  Baden,  Ind.,  December  9,  1908. 

R.  R.  Shiel,  Indianapolis,  Ind.  : 

Dear  Sir — Yours  of  December  7th  received,  and  at  your 
request  am  sending  you  the  following: 

Lee  Wiley  Sinclair,  capitalist,  born  at  Cloverdale,  Put- 
nam county,  Indiana,  February  18,  1836 ;  reared  on  a  farm, 
educated  in  country  schools.  Was  engaged  in  the  woolen 
mills  business  at  Greencastle,  Salem,  Indiana,  and  South 
Chicago,  Illinois,  until  1888.  In  1888  bought  one-third  in- 
terest in  the  West  Baden  Springs  and  in  1901  acquired  en- 
tire interest  of  partnership,  organized  and  is  president  of 
the  West  Baden  Springs  Company.  In  1902  erected  at  this 
resort  a  hotel  costing  one  million  dollars.  This  hotel  is  un- 
doubtedly the  most  unique  and  complete  in  the  world.  Is 
now,  and  has  been,  president  of  the  Bank  of  Salem  since 
1880 ;  is  also  president  of  the  West  Baden  National  Bank, 
which  he  organized  in  1902.  He  is  interested  in  various  in- 
dustries in  the  State.  Yours  very  truly, 

'Tres/' 

[7] 


98  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

MR.  FRANK  F.  DEAN'S  LETTER. 

Solon,  Ind.,  December  13,  1908. 

R.  U.  Shiel,  Indianapolis,  ind.: 

Dear  Comrade — Yours  of  the  7th  inst.  received  last 
night,  the  delay  being  caused  by  it  going  to  Marble  Hill, 
which  is  not  my  postoftice  now.  I  am  sorry  for  the  delay, 
but  it  can't  be  helped  now. 

In  answer  to  your  inquiry,  I  would  say  that  the  soil  of 
our  hillsides  is  eminently  suited  to  blue  grass,  and  it  will 
grow  there  equal  to  any  place  in  the  country.  The  cliffs 
are  magnesian  and  blue  shell  limestone. 

As  to  apples  and  peaches,  that  while  some  localities  may 
produce  better  apples,  it  is  doubtful ;  and  as  to  peaches,  we 
have  demonstrated  in  past  years  that  we  can  beat  the  world 
in  quality  and  flavor.  T  have  sold  peaches  in  Cincinnati  in 
competition  with  peaches  from  Delaware,  Ohio  and  Ken- 
tucky, and  in  Chicago  in  competition  with  Michigan 
peaches,  frequently  at  double  the  prices  they  brought. 

Mr.  Leland,  proprietor  of  the  Leland  Hotel  in  Chicago, 
who  was  a  California  man,  once  told  me  that  he  would 
rather  have  one  bushel  of  my  peaches,  for  his  own  eat- 
ing, than  a  carload  of  California  peaches.  Twenty  years 
ago  the  hills  along  the  Ohio  river  on  both  sides  were  cov- 
ered with  peach  trees,  my  father,  self  and  brothers  having 
125,000  trees  in  bearing,  resulting  in  overstocking  the  mar- 
ket to  the  extent  that  the  planting  of  more  orchards  ceased, 
and  the  orchards  dying  out,  there  is  not  many  grown  in 
this  vicinity  now,  although  the  industry  is  being  revived. 

My  brother,  Hiram  P.,  who  lives  at  3440  N.  Salem  street, 
Indianapolis,  in  connection  with  some  other  Indianapolis 


With  the  Beef  Trust  99 

parties,  set  out  9,000  peach  and  apple  trees  in  the  last  two 
years,  and  expect  to  plant  30,000  more  in  the  Spring. 

I  believe  that  the  river  hillsides  would  produce  fine 
grapes  also. 

If  I  can  do  anything  further  to  aid  you,  let  me  know 
and  I  will  do  what  I  can.  Yours  very  truly, 

Frank  F.  Dean. 


MR.  E.  R.  SMITH'S  LETTER. 

Indianapolis,  Ind.,  December  19,  1908. 

Hon.  R.  R.  Shiel,  Indianapolis,  Tnd.: 

My  Dear  Sir — In  replying  to  your  question  concerning 
rural  life  in  Franklin  county,  Indiana,  and  my  relations 
thereto,  I  beg  you  to  indulge  a  bit  of  personal  history  that 
will  in  part  answer  your  inquiry.  For  the  past  twenty 
years  I  have  traveled  in  the  States  West  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  as  my  early  life  was  spent  on  a  farm,  it  has  been  easy 
for  me  to  keep  up  my  bucolic  interests,  especially  since  I 
have  had  the  general  management  of  the  home  farm  for 
many  years. 

The  most  of  my  traveling  has  been  in  Montana,  Idaho, 
Colorado,  Wyoming  and  the  Coast  States,  and  I  have 
watched  with  great  interest  the  discussions  of  such  ques- 
tions as  ''The  extension  of  wheat  and  corn  belts,  "The 
irrigation  of  arid  lands, "  "  The  grazing  of  sheep  and  cattle 
on  public  lands,"  etc.,  etc.  The  changes  brought  about  in 
,  these  Western  States  have  been  like  bringing  new  worlds 
into  view.  Of  course,  I  have  always  studied  them  in  com- 
parison with  my  home  state,  Indiana.  For  instance,  I  have 
seen  cattle  and  sheep  grazed  on  the  Western  plains  with 


100  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

great  profit,  where  there  is  not  as  much  grass  on  five  acres 
as  there  is  in  southern  Indiana  on  one  acre.  I  have  seen 
Western  apples  sell  in  our  local  markets  at  top  prices  al- 
though they  were  in  no  way  to  be  compared  to  our  home 
apples  in  flavor  and  color.  I.  saw  the  orchards  of  Missouri, 
southern  Illinois  and  Ohio  develop  and  produce  wonder- 
fully. I  could  see  no  reason  for  Indiana  being  behind  ex- 
cept for  want  of  trial,  and  finally  after  testing  the  lands  in 
many  States  I  decided  that  there  is  no  better  place  to  raise 
sheep  and  fruit,  especially  apples,  than  in  southern  In- 
diana. 

I  examined  many  places  and  finally  came  upon  the 
"Bill  Day"  farm  at  Laurel,  Franklin  county,  Indiana. 
Here  is  a  tract  of  750  acres  of  rolling  land  that  is  well 
grassed,  well  watered,  and  well  wooded  with  choice  hard- 
wood timber.  There  is  but  little  plow  land,  but  an  abun- 
dance of  orchard  slope  and  blue  grass  pasture. 

Before  purchasing  the  land,  I  asked  horticultural  ex- 
perts from  Indiana  and  Ohio  to  visit  the  place  and  make  de- 
tailed reports  as  to  the  advisability  of  planting  a  commer- 
cial orchard  there.  Their  reports  gave  unqualified  endorse- 
ment to  the  plan.  They  discussed  the  top  soil,  subsoil, 
stratas,  surface  drainage,  soil  drainage,  air  drainage,  slope 
of  land,  climate,  etc.,  and  found  nothing  wanting.  Prof. 
Cox,  of  Ohio,  pronounced  it  the  most  desirable  orchard  site 
he  had  ever  examined.  Upon  the  recommendation  of  these 
men  and  our  best  nursery  men,  we  have  now  planted  4,000 
trees,  all  apple  trees  and  all  of  the  highest  class  fruit — 
Jonathans,  Grimes,  Goldens,  Wine  Saps  and  Roman  Beau- 
ties. We  shall  add  6,000  more  of  the  same  varieties  next 
spring,  planting  in  all  about  300  acres.     We  are  equipped 


With  the  Beef  Trust  101 

to  give  these  trees  and  the  ground  the  best  possible  care. 
Ten  years  hence  a  half  crop  from  this  orchard,  at  present 
prices,  will  yield  $150,000. 

In  addition  to  our  orchards,  we  will  carry  a  herd  of 
thoroughbred  sheep — the  Hampshiredowns.  These  we  will 
breed  exclusiA^ely  for  the  spring  lamb  trade.  They  cannot 
but  do  well  on  the  blue  grass  hills. 

Trusting  T  have  answered  your  questions,  I  am, 

Very  truly  yours, 

E.  R.  Smith. 


MR.  J.  M.  ZION'S  LETTER. 
Clark's  Hill,  Ind.,  December  16,  1908. 

Mr.  R.  R.  Shiel,  Indianapolis.  Ind.: 

"Wm.  Zion  was  bom  at  Washington  C.  H.,  Penn.,  Feb- 
ruary 12,  1812.  Started  West  in  1882,  stopping  at  Rush- 
ville,  Ind.,  where  he  married,  and  journeyed  into  Boone 
county,  Indiana,  in  1833.  He  became  sheriff  of  Boone 
county  in  1839.  About  1844  he  hewed  down  and  ''cleared" 
20  acres  of  heavy  white  oalv  and  walnut  timber.  The  land 
is  now  a  part  of  the  town  of  Lebanon.  He  planted  seven 
acres  of  apples  such  as  Vandever,  Bellflower,  Northern  Spy, 
Jem  ton.  Golden  Russet,  etc.,  all  of  which  produced  excel- 
lent crops  two  years  out  of  three,  which  were  shipped  to 
Cincinnati,  Ohio,  in  car  lots.  This  orchard  became  famous 
throughout  the  State  and  was  profitable  for  forty  years. 

James  M.  Zion,  son  of  William  Zion,  was  bom  at  Leb- 
anon, Indiana,  September  22,  1848.  He  attended  school 
in  winter  (three  months),  working  on  his  father's  farm  and 
orchard  before  school  time  and  after,  and  also  when  there 


102  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

was  no  school.  He  became  a  telegrapher  and  railroad  sta- 
tion agent,  going  West  to  San  Francisco  in  1879.  He  was  a 
close  observer  of  the  beginning  and  development  of  fruit 
growing  in  California,  Oregon  and  Washington.  Always 
appreciating  the  Pacific  Coast  States'  apples,  pears,  plums 
and  peaches  as  the  most  beautiful  grown  (with  five  excep- 
tions) ,  he  yet  knew  that  they  did  not  possess  the  fine  flavor 
of  such  fruits  grown  in  his  father's  orchard  in  Indiana. 
The  growing  popularity  of  the  Pacific  coast  fruits  in  the 
Eastern  markets,  regardless  of  their  flavor,  aroused  his 
jealousy  for  his  native  State  (Indiana)  ;  and  for  many 
years  he  could  never  buy  or  hear  of  apples  grown  in  In- 
diana, as  there  were  not  only  no  apples  grown  there  but 
that  it  was  generally  believed  apples  could  not  be  grown 
in  Indiana,  especially  in  the  central  belt  of  the  State.  Such 
was  the  nature  of  bulletins  sent  out  by  Horticultural  and 
Agricultural  universities  and  crude  ''Experimental"  Sta- 
tions conducted  by  Professors  who  knew  no  more  about 
apples  or  how  to  grow  them  than  ' '  Grape ' '  fruit,  then  un- 
known. As  I  grew  older  I  became  more  interested  and 
anxious  that  my  native  State  should  be  aroused  to  the  fact 
that  Indiana  could  grow  successfully  the  best-flavored  and 
(some  varieties)  most  beautiful  in  the  world  if  her  people 
could  be  taught  to  adopt  modem  methods  in  their  orchards, 
and  enact  good  horticultural  laws,  such  as  are  enjoyed  in 
Pacific  Coast  States. 

Priding  in  my  native  State  and  desiring  to  do  what  I 
could  to  develop  the  horticultural  interests  of  Indiana,  I 
decided  to  return  and  dedicate  my  means  and  energies  to- 
ward proving  to  the  world  that  Indiana  could  grow  beau- 
tiful apples  at  a  profit. 


With  the  Beef  Tkust  103 

My  first  step  was  to*  purchase  320  acres  of  good  corn, 
wheat,  oats  and  timber  land  in  Tippecanoe  county,  in  the 
year  1889.  Fifty  acres  were  thoroughly  drained  and  set 
aside  for  an  apple  orchard,  to  the  great  surprise  of  every 
land  owner  in  this  part  of  the  State.  Many  said  I  might 
as  well  plant  orange  trees,  and  that  we  could  not  grow  ap- 
ples in  Indiana.  In  fact,  our  Experiment  Stations  were  re- 
porting the  same  thing,  making  an  exception  in  Brown 
county,  a  county  that  did  not  then  grow  any  and  today 
does  not  grow  but  a  few.  Under  such  a  cloud  of  ignorance 
I  at  once  saw  I  must  establish  an  apple,  pear,  plum,  peach 
and  cherry  Experiment  Station  for  the  benefit  of  all  those 
in  my  State  who  could  be  induced  to  engage  in  fruit  grow- 
ing, especially  apples.  Consequently  I  set  aside  10  acres 
for  Experiment  Station  in  1889,  and  40  acres  for  a  com- 
mercial orchard.  I  have  conducted  both  the  Experiment 
Station  and  orchard  at  an  expense  of  $15,000.00.  The 
large  number  of  letters  of  inquiry,  congratulations,  thanks, 
etc.,  received  almost  daily,  and  the  great  and  growing  in- 
terest in  apple  growing  in  our  State,  brings  me  gratifica- 
tion— saying  nothing  about  the  success  of  my  exhibits: 
first  prizes  at  best  grower's  exhibit  in  the  State,  Gold  Medal 
Apple  Exhibit  St.  Louis,  1904;  I  have  secured  almost 
enough  blue  ribbons  (first  prize)  to  make  a  circus  tent. 
One  barrel  of  my  beautiful  apples,  17  to  191/^2  inches  in  cir- 
cumference, went  to  "Sherry's,"  New  York,  for  a  swell 
railroad  banquet,  which  I  thought  not  only  a  good  adver- 
tisement for  myself  but  also  for  my  State.  Many  of  my 
friends  throughout  the  State,  who  had  no  confidence  in  my 
enterprise,  are  now  appreciating  and  planting  large  or- 
chards.    My  desires   and   ambitions   toward   encouraging 


104  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

others  to  plant  orchards  are  satisfied,  except  that  we  have 
no  horticultural  legislation  such  as  that  enjoyed  by  Pa- 
cific Coast  States,  which  is  imperative  that  we  should  be- 
fore we  can  make  a  complete  success.  I  anticipate  it  at 
next  session  of  Leg'islature  instead  of  the  so-called  Nursery 
Inspection  Law,  the  most  deceptive  and  pernicious  ever  en- 
acted. J.  M.  ZioN. 


MR.  A.  M.  GRAHAM'S  LETTER. 

Madison,  Ind.,  December  19,  1908. 

Mr.  Roger  R.  Shiel,  Indianapolis,  Indiana: 

My  Dear  Comrade — ^Your  letter  received  and  I  gladly 
comply  with  your  request  for  a  brief  statement  of  our 
family  history. 

My  granrlfather,  Thomas  Graham,  was  born  in  Scot- 
land, near  Edinburgh,  in  1809.  He  came  to  America  in 
1830  with  his  wife,  and  settled  in  Cincinnati.  He  was  en- 
gaged in  the  bakery  business  there,  and  after  one  year  he 
came  to  Madison,  Indiana,  and  continued  in  the  bakery 
business.  He  died  in  1861,  at  the  age  of  fifty-two  years. 
He  accumulated  a  competence  of  more  than  thirty  thousand 
dollars,  which  was  considered  a  large  fortune  at  that  time. 
He  was  survived  by  seven  sons  and  one  daughter. 

My  father,  Thomas  Graham,  was  born  at  Madison  in 
1839.  He  died  at  the  same  place  in  1901.  He  was  in.  the 
forefront  of  Madison 's  business  affairs  during  his  life.  He 
was  many  times  elected  to  office  in  Jefferson  county.  He 
entered  the  army  as  a  private  soldier  and  reached  the  rank 
of  Major  in  the  39th  Indiana  Regiment  Volunteer  Infantry, 
later  8th  Indiana  Cavalry. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  105 

My  father  Avas  an  ambitious  man,  and  did  much  for  me 
and  my  brothers.  He  sent  one  of  them  to  Europe  to  fin- 
ish his  education  for  the  practice  of  medicine.  This  brother, 
Alois  B.  Graham,  is  now  practicing  in  Indianapolis,  and  is 
one  of  the  ranking  physicians  of  that  city.  Another 
brother,  Thomas  A.  Graham,  was  sent  to  Hanover  College 
and  educated  for  the  Presbyterian  ministry.  He  studied 
theology  at  Princeton  University  and  has  occupied  the 
pulpit  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  at  Richmond,  In- 
diana, for  the  past  five  years.  He  is  still  a  very  young 
man,  and  his  friends  confidently  expect  great  things  of  him. 
Myself  and  brother  John  have  been  engaged  in  the  manu- 
facturing business,  and  have  been  successful. 

My  grandfather,  over  seventy  years  ago,  was  impressed 
with  the  need  for  agricultural  improvements  and  the  bet- 
terment of  stock.  His  business  as  baker  brought  him  in 
touch  with  farmers  and  millers  during  his  day,  and  many 
were  the  conferences  he  had  with  men  of  the  original  stock 
farm  and  men  of  the  soil  about  the  prospects  for  the  fu- 
ture. 

My  father,  although  a  manufacturer,  was  a  close  ob- 
server, and  often  spoke  of  the  needs  of  the  farmer  and  the 
stock  raiser  more  than  he  did  of  the  river  interests.  He 
saw  the  Ohio  dry  so  often  that  he  almost  despaired  of  its 
importance  as  a  navigable  stream ;  but  he  had  an  abiding 
faith  in  the  soil  and  in  the  farmer,  which  he  always  said 
would  be  the  great  sources  of  wealth  in  this  country.  He 
always  complained  of  the  lack  of  quality  of  the  stock  in 
his  early  days,  and  he  had  no  use  for  the  fishing  farmer  or 
for  the  man  whom  the  sun  on  rising  found  in  bed. 

Major  Graham  left  what  was  regarded  a  large  fortune. 


106  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

He  was  public-spirited  and  took  an  active  part  in  promot- 
ing the  welfare  of  his  native  town. 

As  you  know,  father  and  you,  and  your  brother  James, 
were  in  the  army  together  and  served  in  the  same  regiment. 
I  have  often  heard  my  father  recount  the  many  deeds  of 
daring  and  valor  performed  by  you  and  your  brother. 

It  is  a  matter  of  much  regret  that  I  did  not  pay  more 
attention  to  these  things,  for  they  are  of  much  importance, 
and  I  believe  that  people  should  have  an  intimate  knowl- 
edge of  their  ancestors,  but  unfortunately  we  pay  too  little 
attention  to  such  things. 

Trusting  this  will  give  you  the  facts  you  want,  and  with 
best  wishes  to  you  and  yours,  I  am  your  friend, 

A.  M.  Graham. 


MR.  S.  HENRY  SKELTON'S  LETTER. 

Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce,  December  23,  1908. 

Mr.  R.  B.  Shiel,  Indianapolis,  Ind.  : 

Dear  Sir — Your  favor  of  the  19th  received.  I  doubt  if 
any  combine,  even  the  Beef  People,  can  be  induced  to  act 
reasonably.  Such  concerns  are  worse  than  the  Standard 
Oil  can  possibly  be.  The  Beef  Combine  will  discount  all 
others  in  its  far-reaching  effects.  They  now  handle  prod- 
uce, eggs,  butter  and  all  food  products,  and  make  the  prices 
dearer  instead  of  cheaper  by  their  methods.  They  crowd 
the  middle  man  out  of  business.  I  have  had  a  time  with 
them  since  July  in  getting  a  license  for  an  independent 
packing  house  at  Everett.  They  have  used  their  influence 
and  money  freely,  and  report  has  it  that  they  spent  over 
$8,000  in  the  city  of  Everett,  about  four  miles  from  Bos- 


With  the  Beef  Trust  107 

ton,  in  shutting  me  out  of  getting  a  license,  and  they  make 
their  brag  that  no  man  can  get  a  license  within  ten  miles 
of  Boston.  I  am  taking  my  fight  with  them  over  into  Janu- 
ary, and  shall  not  give  up.  Will  send  you  copy  by  next 
mail  of  circular  I  issued  to  the  citizens  of  Everett  on  this 
matter. 

They  are  now  in  Buenos  Ayres,  and  the  Schwarzchild  & 
Sulzberger  Co.  are  going  there  also  for  cattle  and  sheep 
for  their  European  trade.  I  presume  you  will  visit  that 
point  on  your  trip.  I  intend  going  there  myself  as  soon 
as  I  get  my  packing  house  started  here.  I  would  like  to 
remark  here  that  the  duty  has  got  to  come  off  of  meat  and 
hides,  or  poor  men  cannot  live  here  decently. 

I  presume  I  can  tell  more,  for  I  knoAv  more  about  the 
Swifts  getting  control  of  all  the  Eastern  houses  than  most 
any  one  else  outside  of  the  Swifts  themselves.  I  was  head 
man  for  ten  years  for  the  Norths  Co.  with  them,  and  I  know 
a  great  deal  I  have  never  told  to  any  one.  They  pressed 
me  out  of  business,  and  made  my  $225,000  worth  of  stock 
shrink  out  of  sight  by  not  paying  any  dividends  on  the 
North  stock  for  seven  years,  and  by  putting  the  price  down 
to  $55  a  share  for  what  cost  me  $100.  They  have  paid  divi- 
dends of  7  per  cent,  on  North  stock  for  the  past  two  years, 
but  pay  nothing  on  Squire's,  ^nd  won't  until  they  drive  the 
few  remaining  shares  into  cover.  They  are  coining  money 
here  now,  and  have  the  entire  control  of  New  England. 

AnsAvering  your  question,  they  bought  the  control  of 
North  in  January,  1890.  I  was  with  them  ten  years,  dur- 
ing which  time  they  always  paid  dividends  and  left  a  good 
surplus.  No  more  dividends  were  paid  until  January,  1907, 
or  1908. 


108  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

They  bought  the  Squire  plant  for  14  cents  on  the  dol- 
lar, and  also  the  bonuses  of  other  parties  in  interest,  said 
to  be  quite  large.  They  bought  the  Niles  and  paid  a  good 
price.  They  crowded  White,  Pevey  &  Dexter  out  of  busi- 
ness and  bought  their  plant  at  a  favorable  price.  The  Mer- 
win  Co.  and  Sperry  &  Barnes  they  consolidated  after  buy- 
ing the  latter,  and  crowded  Coe  out. 

You  can  go  all  over  the  country  for  a  like  example  of 
highhandedness,  and  not  even  the  Standard  Oil  will  be 
found  in  it  with  the  beef  men. 

Always  pleased  to  hear  from  you. 

Yours  sincerly, 

S.  Henry  Skelton. 


MR.  THOMAS  K.  MULL'S  LETTER. 

Manilla,  Ind.,  December  18,  1908. 

R.  B.  Shiel,  Esq.,  Indianapolis,  Ind.: 

Dear  Sir — ^Your  letter  of  December  5th  came  during 
my  absence  from  home,  and  the  hope  of  seeing  you  was  a 
further  cause  for  delay  in  writing. 

Taking  the  live  stock  of  Rush  county,  I  believe  horses 
and  hogs,  sheep  also,  have  improved  in  breeding,  but  not 
so  with  cattle. 

Twenty  years  ago  cattle  feeders  bought  their  Shorthorn 
cattle  here  in  the  county,  every  farmer  having  good  Short- 
horn cows.  Today  Jerseys  have  taken  their  place,  and  to 
a  large  extent  feeding  cattle  are  bought  elsewhere. 

Last  Monday  the  Meyer  boys  sold  55  cattle,  said  to  be 
the  best  cattle  going  through  the  Union  Stock  Yards  for 
some  time,  and  they  were  bought  two  years  ago  at  Kansas 
City. 


With  the  Beef  Trust    .  109 

The  general  condition  of  the  farming  community  is 
much  better  than  ever  before.  Three  agencies  have  con- 
tributed to  this,  I  think  in  the  order  named:  Rural  free 
delivery,  the  telephone,  and  better  roads. 

I  thank  you  very  much  for  your  kindly  interest,  and 
hope  to  talk  to  you  scon.  Respectfully, 

Thos.  K.  Mull. 


MR,  CHARLES  S.  HERNLY'S  LETTER. 
United  Industrial  Co. 
Indianapolis,  Ind.,  December  29,  1908. 

Mr.  R.  E.  Shiel,  Indiaiiopolis,  Ind.: 

Dear  Sir — In  1882  I  was  riding  on  the  train  up  near 
Toledo,  Ohio,  and  looking  out  of  the  window  saw  a  dredg- 
ing machine  digging  a  drain,  and  I  got  off  at  the  first  sta- 
tion the  train  stopped  and  got  a  horse  and  buggy  and  a 
man  to  drive  for  me  and  went  back  and  saw  this  dredging 
machine  work.  I  found  this  machine  in  charge  of  Mr. 
Hosea  Stock,  and  I  asked  him  if  he  thought  that  kind  of 
machine  would  dig  a  ditch  in  Henry  county,  Indiana,  where 
I  live.  He  said  he  would  insure  the  thing  to  do  the  work 
if  there  was  enough  water  to  float  the  boat.  I  told  him 
that  I  knew  there  would  be  plenty  of  water  and  that  I 
would  like  him  to  come  over  and  dredge  a  drain  through 
what  is  known  as  the  Blue  River  Valley  in  Henry  county, 
Indiana. 

This  was  the  first  public  improvement  that  I  was  con- 
nected with  in  the  county  where  I  was  born  and  reared.  I 
returned  to  my  little  office  in  New  Castle  in  a  few  days  and 
found  that  the  ditch  law  which  had  been  passed  by  the 


110  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

Legislature  of  1881  was  operative,  and  began  to  get  up  a  pe- 
tition by  describing  all  of  the  lands  in  40-acre  tracts  or  less 
for  the  distance  of  ten  miles  down  the  Blue  River  Valley. 
This  took  a  long  time  and  much  hard  work,  but  I  never 
was  connected  with  anything  that  was  easy  to  do  and  I 
did  not  get  discouraged.  After  I  had  the  petition  com- 
pleted, I  went  to  various  farmers  along  up  and  down  the 
valley,  and  the  prominent  ones  refused  to  sign  it,  because 
they  knew  that  it  was  wholly  impracticable  and  such  a 
scheme  never  could  be  made  to  work  and  that  the  bottom 
lands  along  Blue  River  Valley  were  so  swampy  that  they 
never  could  be  reclaimed  and  that  they  never  would  be 
worth  anything  ^nd  they  had  tried  to  drain  the  lands  time 
and  again  by  simply  throwing  out  with  the  shovel  and 
spade,  and  I  met  with  all  sorts  of  discouragement  and 
worked  at  the  proposition  fully  six  months  before  I  got  one 
man  to  agree  with  me  that  the  plan  was  feasible  and  that 
the  valley  could  be  reclaimed,  thereby  getting  shut  of  the 
chills  and  fever  and  miasma  and  reclaiming  thousands  of 
acres  of  land  that  would  produce  annually  from  80  to  100 
bushels  of  com  per  acre. 

One  hot  summer  day  in  July  I  took  a  horse  and  buggy 
and  drove  up  to  Burr  Oak  Schoolhouse,  eight  miles  above 
New  Castle,  where  we  wanted  the  ditch  to  begin,  and  met 
four  or  five  of  the  farmers  at  the  upper  end  of  the  drain. 
There  I  succeeded  in  getting  two  other  men  to  sign  the  peti- 
tion, and  after  various  hard  work  finally  got  four  or  five 
men  to  sign  it,  and  I  filed  the  petition  in  the  Henry  county 
Circuit  Court  and  the  court  appointed  commissioners,  and 
we  started  in  to  dig  the  first  ditch  that  was  ever  dug  in 
Henry  county  with  a  dredging  machine.     After  the  ditch 


With  the  Beef  Trust  111 

commissioners  had  made  their  assessments,  pretty  nearly 
every  farmer  and  land  owmer  along  the  line  of  the  ditch  re- 
monstrated against  the  improvement,  and  we  lawed  the 
matter  through  the  courts  for  a  year  or  more,  but  finally 
the  drain  was  established  and  the  matter  referred  to  the 
ditch  commissioners  for  execution  and  completion  of  the 
drain  according  to  the  plans  of  the  engineer.  I  then  wrote 
to  Mr.  Stock  at  Toledo.  Ohio,  and  had  him  come  to  New 
Castle  and  look  over  the  plans  and  specifications  of  the 
ditch,  and  he  came  and  staid  three  or  four  days,  and 
was  the  successful  bidder  and  started  in  with  his  dredging 
machine  in  due  time,  and  after  two  and  one-half  years  the 
ditch  was  completed. 

This  was  one  of  the  hardest  struggles  of  my  lifetime  for 
public  improvement,  and  after  it  was  over  the  court  al- 
lowed me  $750  for  attorneys'  fees,  but  there  never  was 
any  improvement  made  in  Henry  county  equal  to  that. 
Today  this  is  the  most  valuable  and  productive  land  in 
Henry  county,  a  great  majority  of  which  needs  no  tile  or 
lateral  drains.  The  farmers  had  dug  a  great  many  lateral 
drains  and  put  in  tiling,  but  after  the  dredging  machine 
passed  through  and  dug  the  ditch,  the  tile  drains  mostly 
went  dry  and  the  water  level  settled  until  they  were  no 
longer  of  any  use  or  necessity.  This  land  raises  corn  every 
year  of  the  best  quality,  and  a  very  large  yield  to  the  acre. 
A  great  many  people  got  furiously  mad  at  me,  and  several 
of  them  would  not  speak  to  mc  after  the  drain  had  been 
established  and  after  it  had  reclaimed  many  acres  of  worth- 
less land  on  their  farms. 

No  man  or  citizen  in  Henry  county  has  ever  been  able 
to  calculate  or  estimate  the  value  of  this  one  improvement 


112  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

to  that  grand  old  county  in  Indiana  that  has  been  one  of 
the  foremost  agricultural  counties  in  the  State  of  Indiana. 
This  drain  brought  lands  into  cultivation  and  enhanced 
their  value  from  $10  an  acre  to  $100  per  acre  or  more  at 
a  very  moderate  cost  to  the  land  owners.  It  drained  a  dis- 
mal swamp  of  thousands  of  acres  of  worthless,  disease-pro- 
ducing territory  into  a  perpetual  valley  of  rich,  fertile 
black  lands  that  can  never  be  worn  out,  and  it  is  to  that  one 
thing,  the  digging  of  this  drain,  more  than  any  other,  that 
has  brought  Henry  county  prominently  to  the  front  as  one 
of  the  great  corn-producing  counties  of  Indiana  and  prob- 
ably the  third  or  fourth  hog-producing  county  of  the  grand 
old  Hoosier  State.  It  has  brought  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  dollars  in  return  and  paid  many  times  over  and  over 
what  it  cost  the  farmers  for  the  original  expenditure  in 
draining  this  land,  and  has  done  more  than  any  one  thing 
to  add  to  Henry  county 's  fame  and  pride  of  being  the  home 
of  the  wild  flower  and  the  honey  bee. 

Yours  Yery  truly, 

Charles  S.  Hernly. 


Mr.  Shiel  's  Second  Letter  to  the  Com- 
mission. 

Commission  on  Country  Life,  Washington,  D.  C: 

My  Dear  Sirs — Some  time  in  January  I  caused  to  be 
mailed  you  copies  of  a  brief  in  reply  to  your  inquiry  which 
came  to  me  about  the  10th  of  December,  as  to  Ohio,  Indi- 
ana and  Illinois.  At  the  time  I  received  your  letter  I  had 
made  arrangements  to  leave  home  to  visit  South  America 
and  Cuba  about  the  10th  or  15th  of  December,  and  I  only 
had  four  or  five  days  to  dictate  the  brief,  which  my  man- 
ager had  printed.  When  I  arrived  at  Washington  on  my 
return  in  February,  I  saw  that  there  were  some  errors  as 
to  dates  and  places  and  some  misprints  in  it,  and  I  feel  it 
due  you,  myself  and  the.  readers  that  it  should  be  repub- 
lished— I  have  had  it  proofed  correctly.  I  feel  also  that  it 
is  necessary  to  furnish  you  further  data  on  this  line  at  this 
time  when  there  is  so  much  agitation  regarding  the  tariff 
bill,  and  certainly  there  is  no  one  more  interested  in  this 
tariff  bill,  in  which  the  whole  country  is  concerned,  than 
the  farmer. 

I  will  now  take  up  what  is  well  known  as  the  Meat 
Trusts.  There  are  at  least  ten  of  them,  and  I  will  take 
them  up  in  turn  and  deal  with  each  as  I  come  to  it. 

The  greatest  Trust  in  the  known  world  is  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad  Company,  which  has  been  largely  operated 
by  one  Samuel  Allerton,  of  Chicago,  Illinois.  I  have  per- 
sonally known  him  for  at  least  forty-one  or  two  years,  and 
he  is  the  ''High  Priest,"  leading  all  combinations  and 

[8]  (113^ 


114  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

organizing  more  of  them  than  any  other  one  man.  The 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  is  what  might  be  called  a  large 
Department  Store.  They  own  and  operate  practically 
everything  and  everybody  on  the  lines  of  their  roads. 

The  next  great  Trust  to  that  is  the  Hollis  Hides,  Tallow, 
Dressed  Lambs  and  Sheep  Company,  of  Boston.  I  will 
name  them  in  routine  as  I  knew  them  and  operated  with 
them.  The  third,  Nelson  Morris  &  Co.,  Chicago;  fourth. 
Swift  &  Co.,  Chicago;  fifth,  Hammond  &  Co.,  Chicago; 
sixth,  Kingan  &  Co.,  Indianapolis,  and  St.  Clair  &  Co., 
Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa;  seventh.  Armour  &  Co.,  Chicago; 
eighth,  Cudahy  &  Co.,  Milwaukee,  and  ninth,  the  National 
Packing  Co.,  Chicago. 

FIRST,   THE  PENNSYLVANIA   RAILROAD  '  COMPANY. 

The  Pennsylvania  Railway  Company  own  and  operate 
practically  all  the  cars  they  use  on  their  lines.  They  own 
and  operate  practically  all  the  stock  yards  on  the  lines  of 
their  roads,  which  are  the  greatest  thieves  in  the. known 
world.  They  also  own  all  of  the  packing  houses  on  their 
lines  with  the  exception  of  two  at  Dayton,  Ohio.  The  pack- 
ing houses  they  don't  own  or  control  are:  Ray  &  Co. 
and  Dunlevy  Bros.,  Pittsburg,  Pa.;  Wm.  Zollers  &  Co., 
Allegheny,  Pa.;  Seltzer  Bros.,  and  Jacob  Ullmer  &  Co., 
Pottsville,  Pa.;  Stowers  Packing  Co,  Scranton,  Pa.;  J.  J. 
Felan  &  Son,  G-ermantown,  Pa.;  Pennsylvania  Packing  Co., 
Philadelphia,  Pa.;  Hart  Bros.,  Wilmington,  Del.;  C.  Hoh- 
man,  and  his  eight  sons.  Company,  Baltimore,  Md. ;  F. 
Schenk,  and  six  sons.  Company,  Wheeling,  W.  Va.  They 
educate  the  employes  in  their  own  stock  yards  to  practice 
fraud  on  everyone  who  does  not  succumb  to  their  dictation. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  115 

They  buy  practically  all  the  cattle  on  the  line  of  their  roads 
that  are  fit  to  be  exported.  They  export  all  the  cattle  in 
their  own  ships  to  practically  all  parts  of  Great  Britain; 
Sam  Allerton  being  the  ''King  Bee"  and  making  all  the 
rates  on  his  road,  paying  all  the  rebates,  adjusting  and  set- 
tling all  claims,  etc.  He  first  commenced  in  Chicago  during 
or  before  the  war  running  a  packing  house.  He  employed 
one  George  B.  Wilson,  then  a  boy,  just  my  age,  who  soon 
grew  up  to  be  his  bookkeeper.  Sometime  about  thirty-three 
to  thirty-five  years  ago  he  organized  a  firm  that  was  then 
known  as  Allerton  &  Wilson  for  the  purpose  of  slaughtering 
hogs  in  Jersey  City  in  one  of  his  stock  yards,  to  sell  to  the 
cutters  in  and  about  Jersey  City  and  New  York.  In  a  short 
time  afterwards  he  organized  what  was  known  at  that  time 
as  a  combination,  taking  into  this  combination  practically 
all  the  slaughterers  doing  business  in  New  York:  Brain- 
ard  Bros.,  doing  business  in  Jersey  City,  Philadelphia 
and  Pittsburg  (there  were  three  brothers)  ;  Monroe  Crane, 
West  street;  C.  H.  Davis  &  Co.,  J.  Love  &  Co.,  West  foot 
Thirty-ninth  street;  Tilden  &  Co.,  of  Chicago;  W.  0. 
Stalnacker,  later  Stalnacker  &  Son  (the  son,  Will  Stal- 
n acker,  was  at  one  time  mayor  of  Yonkers  and  a  member 
of  Congress  for  a  number  of  terms,  and  well  known  in  New 
York)  ;  Spring  &  Haynes,  foot  West  Fortieth  street;  G.  V. 
Bartlett  &  Co.,  one  time  in  New  York,  but  later  in  Jersey 
City.  I  could  name  a  number  of  other  smaller  ones  who 
had  to  enter  into  the  combination  in  order  to  do  any  busi- 
ness in  New  York  and  have  their  stock  delivered  on  time. 
This  combination,  however,  had  parties  connected  with  the 
New  York  Central,  operated  at  that  time  by  Mr.  Dutcher, 
who  was  and  is  stock  agent,  who  occupied  the  same  place 


116  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

with  the  New  York  Central  that  Allerton  did  on  the  Penn- 
sylvania. However,  the  New  York  Central  did  not  follow 
it  up  in  the  same  way  that  Allerton  did,  as  they  never  went 
into  the  exporting  of  live  stock,  or  into  the  slaughtering 
as  a  business,  as  a  company,  but  they  did  own,  control  and 
manipulate  New  York  Central  stock  yards  at  the  West  foot 
of  Sixtieth  street;  Albany,  N.  Y.,  stock  yards,  which  were 
very  large,  and  the  Buffalo  stock  yards,  all  of  which  were 
on  the  line  of  their  road,  and  no  one  could  unload  or  feed 
a  car  of  stock  on  their  road  east  of  Buffalo  except  in  their 
yards. 

I  commenced  selling  Allerton  &  Wilson  largely  when 
they  began  business  in  New  York.  This  was  before  we  built 
the  stock  yards  in  Indianapolis.  At  that  time  the  two  rail- 
roads were  handing  out  rebates  to  large  shippers  of  from 
$15  to  $25  per  car,  according  to  the  distance  shipped,  when 
they  had  a  train  load.  Allerton  and  Dutcher  were  the  men 
who  were  handing  out  the  money,  and  if  I  could  make  my 
rebates  on  my  heavy  shipments  I  had  a  good  profit.  After 
we  built  the  yards  at  Indianapolis  I  commenced  buying  on 
commission,  charging  $6  a  double  deck  for  buying  hogs  and 
$10  for  cattle  and  sheep,  with  the  exception  of  those  pur- 
chased for  customers  in  Philadelphia,  Baltimore  and  Wash- 
ington. They  required  a  closer  sort,  and  I  got  $8  and  $10 
from  W.  E.  Clark  in  Washington;  E.  G.  Rheinthaler  & 
Co.,  Philadelphia;  Jacob  C.  Schaffer,  Baltimore;  W.  P. 
Harvey  &  Co.  and  Charles  G.  Kreil,  Baltimore,  and  a  num- 
ber of  others.  The  New  York  people  kicked  on  my  com- 
mission, but  they  soon  paid  it  without  a  murmur.  Allerton 
&  Wilson  became  very  large  customers  of  mine,  possibly  the 
largest  I  had  in  New  York,  as  Wilson  ordered  me  to  buy 


With  the  Beef  Teust  117 

up  to  15  cars  a  day,  when  I  saw  they  were  worth  the 
money,  Wilson  and  I  became  very  close  friends.  I  never 
had  a  better  one,  and  he  never  had  a  better  friend  than  I 
was.  He  Avas  the  brightest  accountant  and  the  best  book- 
keeper I  ever  knew,  the  earliest  man  up  and  the  last  one 
to  bed  in  New  York  or  Jersey  City.  This  he  continued  up 
to  the  time  of  his  death,  some  few  months  ago.  He  in- 
variably told  me  how  they  were  doing,  and  the  different 
rebates  that  the  "High  Priest,"  Allerton,  was  giving  the 
different  shippers.  Of  course,  Allerton  and  Wilson  were 
practically  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  for  a  time.  Some 
twenty-three  to  twenty-five  years  ago  Allerton  drew  out  of 
the  firm,  and  the  firm  has  been  known  since  as  George  B. 
Wilson  &  Co.,  and  are  still  the  largest  operators  in  the  Penn- 
sylvania stock  yards  in  Jersey  City,  and  the  largest  slaugh- 
terers for  New  York,  Jersey  City,  Newark,  Brooklyn  and 
the  neighboring  trade.  At  this  time  United  States  Senator 
McPherson,  of  New  Jersey,  was  one  of  the  very  largest 
operators  in  the  Pennsylvania  yards  on  the  Jersey  side. 
Then  at  that  time,  thirty  years  ago,  John  Taylor,  of  Tren- 
ton, N.  J.,  was  a  very  large  operator.  He  had  a  good  pack- 
ing house  and  a  stock  yard  where  he  sold  dressed  hogs  off 
the  hooks  to  the  immediate  towns,  and  finally  got  to  ship- 
ping to  towns  on  the  lines  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad, 
even  into  Newark  and  Jersey  City.  He  showed  strong  com- 
petition to  the  Pennsylvania  road  and  the  New  York  Ex- 
change, and  they  soon  set  about  to  put  him  out  of  busi- 
ness. He  was  at  that  time  a  very  rich  man  and  had  served 
a  number  of  terms  in  the  State  Senate,  and  was  one  of 
the  very  ablest  men  there  was  on  the  Republican  side  of  the 
Senate.    I  frequently  met  him  as  a  delegate  to  Republican 


118  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Helt^ 

National  conventions.  John  and  I  often  talked  about  it,  he 
contending  that  they  would  not  be  able  to  break  him,  but 
they  finally  got  him  not  only  broke  in  financial  matters,  but 
the  great  good  man  died  a  poor  man  under  the  pressure. 
They  have  practically  wiped  out  or  absorbed  every  packing 
house  on  the  line  of  their  roads,  with  the  exception  of  some 
few  small  operators  out  in  the  anthracite  coal  regions  and 
the  Pennsylvania  Packing  Company,  which  was  owned  by 
E.  G.  Rheinthaller  &  Co.,  Philadelphia.  Rheinthaller  is 
one  of  the  wealthy  men  of  Philadelphia,  president  of  a  big 
trust  company,  and  having  a  local  trade  sufficient  to  keep 
up  his  plant.    He  was  one  time  treasurer  of  Philadelphia. 

In  Pittsburg  they  absorbed  and  took  in  what  is  now 
known  as  the  Pittsburg  Packing  and  Provision  Company. 
This  they  did  at  the  time  they  bought  what  was  known 
as  the  Huz  Island  stock  yards,  owned  and  operated  by  the 
Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railroad  Company,  and  moved  the  East 
Liberty  stock  yards,  which  was  their  big  yard,  and  consoli- 
dated the  two.  Allerton's  man  Friday,  Simon  O'Donell, 
who  was  known  in  the  trade  in  Chicago,  Pittsburg,  Phila- 
delphia and  New  York  as  the  ' '  King  of  Ireland, ' '  was  the 
promoter  of  this  consolidation.  Some  twenty-five  or  thirty 
years  ago  he  was  working  in  the  slaughter  house  of  Aller- 
ton  &  Wilson,  then  he  got  to  be  feed  boss  and  working  for 
Allerton  in  the  stock  yards  in  Jersey  City,  where  he  learned 
to  feed  short  rations.  At  the  time  of  the  separation  of 
Allerton  &  Wilson,  Wilson  drove  O'Donell  out  of  his  office 
with  a  gun,  calling  him  a  thief.  Allerton  took  him  up,  and 
he  has  been  the  man  who  has  done  practically  all  the  dirty 
work  for  the  Pennsylvania  road  since  that  time.  He  pays 
all  the  rebates.  In  recent  years  he  has  always  been  looking 
for  a  man  that  has  his  hand  behind  his  back. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  119 

After  the  passage  of  the  Elkins  anti-rebate  law  and  the 
Sherman  anti-trust  law,  Allerton  became  afraid  of  having 
to  go  to  the  penitentiary  if  he  continued  handing  out  re- 
bates. I  told  Allerton  that  it  was  a  violation  of  the  Elkins 
law  to  ride  on  a  pass,  and  that  I  would  take  no  more  of 
his  passes,  nor  could  I  permit  anybody  to  give  me  in  any 
way  any  rebate.  Allerton  took  a  tip,  I  think,  from  this,  and 
employed  this  Irishmen,  who  was  known  as  a  Turk.  There 
is  an  Irishman  and  a  Jew,  or  a  Jew  and  an  Irishman,  in 
everything  that  is  corrupt  in  practically  every  country  in 
the  world.  There  is  no  man  who  thinks  more  of  and  has  a 
higher  regard  for  a  Jewish  woman  or  an  Irish  woman  than 
I  have.  No  women  of  any  nationality  rear  better  Roosevelt 
families  than  the  Irish  and  Jewish  women.  Some  of  the 
greatest  and  best  men  and  some  of  the  fairest  dealers  I 
have  met  in  my  business  career  have  been  Jews,  and  some 
of  the  best  men  have  been  Irish,  but  when  you  find  a  Jew 
or  an  Irishman  without  any  conscience,  a  burglar  is  a  gen- 
tleman beside  him.  A  burglar,  may  be  hungry,  poor  and 
forced  to  steal,  but  when  he  goes  to  burglarize  he  takes  his 
life  in  his  hands,  and  when  cornered  will  kill.  I  have  had 
two  of  them  in  my  house,  but  as  I  desired  no  controversy 
with  them,  told  them  to  take  what  they  had  to  have  and 
get  out,  and  leave  me  and  my  family  to  our  slumbers.  But 
a  Jew  and  an  Irishman  without  a  conscience,  and  who  are 
robbing  everybody  in  every  way,  are  always  cowards.  So 
I  shall  deal  now  with  Allerton 's  man  Friday,  the  King  of 
Ireland,  who  is  an  Irishman  without  a  conscience,  and  not 
much  brains.  Allerton  called  him  to  Chicago  some  twenty- 
five  years  ago,  putting  him  in  the  commission  business  for 
the  purpose  of  buying  stock  to  go  on  slop  feed  on  his  ( Aller- 


120  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

ton's)  farms  in  Piatt,  Vermilion  (Joe  Cannon's  county) 
and  other  counties  in  Illinois,  from  16,000  to  20,000 
acres  of  the  best  land  in  Illinois,  worth  from  $140  to  $200 
an  acre.  This  was  probably  Allerton's  own  private  enter- 
prise, but  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  had  0  'Donell  buy  all 
their  cattle  for  export,  and  buy  hogs  for  slaughter,  or  buy 
for  any  business  they  had  on  the  lines  of  their  road. 
O 'Donell  soon  got  into  the  business  for  himself  under  the 
name  of  Simon  O 'Donell,  and  the  King  became  a  big  com- 
mission man,  practically  doing  business  only  for  AUerton 
and  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  unknown  at  the  time  to  the 
trade.  He  soon  got  into  politics,  unknown  to  politicians — 
except  as  a  Democratic  heeler  in  Jersey  City.  He  soon 
came  to  be  Allerton's  political  boss  and  a  Republican.  I 
was  at  a  meeting  at  the  Auditorium  some  eighteen  or  twenty 
years  ago,  when-  Allerton  was  a  candidate  for  mayor  of  Chi- 
cago. I  went  to  the  meeting  to  hear  Allerton  make  a  speech. 
It  was  a  time  when  I  did  a  little  politics  on  the  side.  I 
found  O 'Donell  bossing  the  job  and  being  the  whole  thing, 
at  the  meeting,  doing  the  ushering.  I  felt  interested  in  the 
election  at  the  time.  I  called  on  O 'Donell  the  next  day  at 
Allerton's  headquarters.  He  was  then  handing  out  the 
stuff,  bossing  the  whole  job.  It  was  said  that  Allerton  spent 
from  a  quarter  to  a  half  a  million  dollars  trying  to  get 
elected,  but  he  was  badly  beaten. 

The  Pennsylvania  Railroad  and  the  Beef  Trust,  about 
twenty  years  ago,  determined  they  would  have  to  get  rid 
of  me,  as  I  was  burning  the  candle  at  both  ends.  I  was 
buying  high  grade  stock  at  high  grade  prices  for  the  little 
butchers — there  were  hundreds  of  them — and  I  never  had  a 
man  to  say  I  paid  too  much  for  stock  when  I  got  the  kind 


With  the  Beef  Trust  121 

he  wanted. .  The  butchers  were  selling  their  high  grade 
direct  to  the  trade.  The  Beef  Trust  was  buying  low  grade 
for  the  United  States  and  sending  all  their  high  grade 
abroad,  so  they  organized  to  get  rid  of  me  at  any  cost.  They 
went  so  far  as  to  put  the  Vandalia  Railroad  in  the  hands  of 
a  receiver,  a  man  known  as  V.  T.  Malott,  president  of  the 
Indiana  National  Bank  of  Indianapolis,  Indiana.  I  was 
banking  with  Malott,  doing  from  two  to  four  million  dol- 
lars business  a  year.  Before  this  time  they  had  organized 
a  live  stock  exchange  at  Indianapolis,  and  at  this  exchange 
they  made  rules.  It  soon  became  a  national  exchange.  I 
was  buying  stock  at  6  o'clock  in  the  morning  under  the 
rules  which  applied  to  all  other  markets  when  we  opened 
the  yards  in  Indianapolis  thirty-two  years  ago.  Bob  Mc- 
Kee,  afterwards  the  son-in-law  of  President  Harrison  and 
"Baby"  McKee's  father,  was  weigh-m aster  some  two  years 
then,  thirty-two  years  ago.  Joseph  T.  Fanning,  Belmont's 
private  secretary,  who  occupies  three  elegant  rooms  at  the 
Waldorf-Astoria,  in  New  York,  was  shipping  clerk  for  the 
yards,  and  shipped  out  trains  almost  every  day  for  me. 
They  finally  got  the  organization  up  to  a  point  that,  ten 
years  ago,  they  passed  a  resolution  not  to  sell  to  me.  Dur- 
ing this  time  they  changed  the  time  for  opening  the  mar- 
ket to  8  o'clock — they  first  made  it  7,  then  8,  while  the  6 
o'clock  rule  prevailed  at  all  the  other  markets.  I  had  a 
wire  direct  into  Boston,  New  York  and  all  the  Eastern  mar- 
kets. The  exchange  waited  to  get  a  telegram  from  every 
market  before  they  would  sell  anything,  and  in  that  way  I 
would  not  be  able  to  wire  the  East  what  the  market  was  in 
Indianapolis.  So  my  customers  in  the  East  told  me  to  buy 
anything  and  everything  fii*st-class  quality,   and  to  send 


122  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

along  anything  I  could  get  if  it  was  worth  the  money,  and 
during  six  months  in  the  year  I  bought  seventy  to  eighty 
per  cent,  of  all  the  good  hogs  and  ninety  per  cent,  of  all  the 
good  cattle  on  their  instructions  to  use  my  own  judgment. 

Then  the  stock  yards  company  and  commission  exchange 
met  with  the  bosses  and  passed  a  resolution  that  I  could  not 
weigh  all  the  stock  I  bought  on  the  scales  I  designated  them 
to  be  weighed  on,  and  if  I  would  not  consent  to  weigh  on 
scales  selected  by  them,  they  would  do  no  more  business 
with  me.  To  this  I  could  not  and  would  not  consent,  as  I 
would  be  robbed  at  every  turn,  and  they  passed  a  resolu- 
tion not  to  do  any  more  business  with  me.  They  had  two 
pair  of  scales  adjusted,  one  to  weigh  light  in  when  they  were 
the  buyers,  and  the  other  heavy  out  when  they  were  the  sell- 
ers; this  was  done  to  suit  the  commission  men.  I  kicked 
on  the  matter,  and  they  met  and  passed  a  resolution  to  do 
no  more  business  with  me  unless  I  submitted  to  their  scales, 
and  I  never  have  done  a  dollar's  worth  of  business  since 
with  any  of  the  members  of  that  exchange,  except  with 
those  who  later  left  and  went  over  to  the  new  yard  with  me. 

Every  year  since  they  put  me  out  of  the  new  yard  I 
have  had  frequent  talks  with  John  M.  Shaw,  general  man- 
ager of  Kingan  &  Co.,  H.  C.  Graybill,  traffic  manager  of 
the  stock  yards,  and  Del  Benson,  who  has  been  most  of  the 
time  since  president  of  the  stock  yards  exchange,  about  get- 
ting back  and  doing  business  in  the  yards.  These  men  were 
the  manipulators  of  the  yards.  The  real  man,  however, 
was  T.  Smith  Graves,  who  was  president  of  the  exchange 
at  the  time  all  this  trouble  was  going  on,  and  has  since  been 
president  of  the  national  exchange,  and  who  was  the  great- 
est actor  I  ever  knew.    Shaw,  Graybille  and  Benson  were  all 


With  the  Beef  Tkust  123 

friendly  to  me,  but  had  to  obey  the  orders  of  their  corpora- 
tion. Graves  was  one  of  those  men  known  to  all  first-class 
business  men  as  one  who  would  rather  make  dollars  than 
reputation  for  his  corporation.  I  will  treat  Graves 
in  the  light  that  the  majority  knew  him  in  the  Indianapolis 
stock  yards  since  the  time  he  came  there,  when  telling  the 
facts  in  regard  to  Kingdn  &  Co.,  which  will  be  number 
six. 

I  appealed  to  the  country  through  the  newspapers,  pay- 
ing for  my  appeal  by  the  line,  at  an  expense  of  many  thou- 
sands of  dollars,  to  send  me  their  stock  on  consignment,  tell- 
ing them  I  would  take  care  of  them  at  one-fourth  the  com- 
mission charged  by  the  exchange.  In  less  than  three  months 
one-third  of  them  had  taken  their  hogs  away  from  the  com- 
mission men,  who  were  getting  enormous  commissions  for 
selling  the  stock,  more  than  double  what  was  charged  when 
the  Indianapolis  stock  yards  opened  thirty-two  years  ago, 
and  consigned  it  to  me.  The  old  feeders,  who  were  still  in  the 
business  of  stock  raising,  knew  me  and  had  confidence  that 
I  would  deal  fairly  by  them.  Many  of  the  young  men  en- 
gaged in  the  business  had  been  taught  by  their  fathers  who 
had  known  me,  this  same  confidence ;  many  of  these  young 
men  have  the  farms  their  fathers  had  left  them.  All  the 
men  shipping  hogs  to  me  were  able  to  bank  themselves  in 
their  own  locality,  and  with  no  ropes  about  their  necks.  I 
would  not  weigh  on  any  scales  but  those  I  knew  would  give 
good  and  honest  weight. 

It  ran  along  three  or  four  months,  and  I  had  the  stock 
yard  manipulators  sufficiently  beaten,  notwithstanding  the 
yard  company  was  robbing  me  at  the  Bast  end  by  swapping 
my  hogs  where  I  loaded  them  out,  and  buying  up  some  of 


124  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

the  men  I  had  looking  after  that  part  of  the  business.  Some 
of  them  had  been  working  for  me  a  long  time.  Then  I  had 
John  P.  Squire  &  Co.  as  a  customer,  who  had  their  own 
private  ears,  who  were  taking  a  large  output,  some  days  as 
high  as  thirty  to  fifty  double  deck  cars.  When  I  got  them 
in  their  care  they  were  safe,  as  thieves  could  not  get  hold  of 
them.  The  fact  is  I  could  have  used  four  hundred  cars  a 
day  with  the  customers  I  had  in  the  East. 

I  organized  to  build  a  new  stock  yards,  believing  that  I 
could  get  away  from  the  established  stock  yards  and  own 
control  of  one  myself — that  is  Squire  and  I — and  a  sup- 
posed friend  by  the  name  of  Irwin.  We  organized  for 
$300,000.  I  took  $100,000  and  Irwin  $100,000,  and  Squire 
$100,000,  and  I  knew  beyond  a  doubt  that  Squire  would 
stay  with  me  until  the  last  ditch,  and  felt  that  I  had  gotten 
control  of  the  yards.  Allerton  and  Rauh,  a  fertilizer  Jew, 
who  was  president  at  that  time  of  the  yards  that  I  caused 
to  be  constructed  in  1877,  were  trying  to  get  rid  of  me,  and 
they  sent  for  O'Donell  to  come  from  Chicago,  as  the  Penn- 
sylvania railroad  was  a  big  holder  in  the  Indianapolis  stock 
yards.  Allerton  knew  that  I  was  taking  all  the  good  stuff 
away  from  them.  O'Donell  came  down  and  proposed  to 
go  into  partnership.  I  said  I  could  not  let  anybody  in — 
we  had  all  the  men  in  we  wanted.  The  next  week  he  came 
back  again  and  said:  ''Rhody,  I  want  to  get  in,  I  want  to 
help  you  do  up  that  Jew. ' '  He  said :  ' '  That  Jew  must  be 
done  up,  let  us  in  and  we  will  take  all  your  cattle."  Mr. 
Allerton  sent  him  down  to  tell  me  this,  and  that  the  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad  stood  back  of  them. 

He  went  out  and  had  a  talk  with  Irwin,  and  the  next 
morning  he  came  to  my  office  from  Rauh's  office,  got  on  his 


With  the  Beef  Trust  125 

knees,  pulled  a  cross  and  made  a  prayer,  and  said :  ' '  Rhody, 
for  God  sake  let  me  in,  I  want  to  help  blow  up  that  Jew. ' ' 
I  said  ' '  No, ' '  but  in  a  few  days  he  had  prevailed  on  Irwin 
and  took  it  up  with  Squire,  showing  what  they  were  going 
'to  do  about  taking  the  cattle.  I  consented  to  make  the  stock 
$500,000;  Allerton  to  take  $100,000,  Irwin  $100,000,  Squire 
$100,000,  I  $100,000  and  $100,000  to  stay  in  the  treasury, 
and  I  still  felt  that  I  had  control,  as  I  was  tied  with  Irwin 
in  a  contract  so  he  could  not  sell  his  stock  without  mine 
going  also. 

We  went  on  and  commenced  the  construction.  I  was 
skeptical  about  the  Irishman  and  the  Jew  all  the  time,  but  I 
could  not  make  Irwin  believe  it.  Rauh  and  Allerton  were 
partners  at  the  time  and  in  less  than  six  months  Rauh  had 
Irwin  a  partner,  too.  We  commenced  and  did  a  huge  busi- 
ness, having  had  to  go  into  the  United  States  court,  employ 
a  lawyer,  who  won  the  case — charged  $5,000 — to  get  our 
stock  unloaded  on  the  Belt  Road  side  tracks.  Judge  Baker 
rendered  a  decision  in  our  favor.  Then  we  did  a  heavy 
business,  especially  in  hogs.  We  commenced  in  September, 
1899,  and  by  December  we  were  doing  an  immense  busi- 
ness in  hogs,  but  had  not  done  much  with  cattle.  The  Mor- 
gan Brothers,  whom  I  mentioned  in  this  brief,  had  between 
1,500  and  3,000  of  the  best  cattle  in  Indiana  on  feed  about 
seventy  miles  south  of  here  on  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad. 
About  the  time  the  yards  were  to  be  opened  I  went  down  to 
see  the  Morgans,  as  I  had  been  buying  their  cattle  for  forty 
years;  arranged  to  handle  all  their  cattle  direct  at  half- 
yardage  and  about  half  commission,  and  the  cattle  should 
go  direct  to  Allerton,  New  York,  as  bought  by  0  'Donell. 

After  we  had  been  open  some  little  time  the  Morgans 


126  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

were  to  make  the  first  shipment.  I  think  it  was  ten  or 
twelve  cars  they  sent  up,  or  rather  John  Morgan  came  up 
with  them.  I  took  O'Donell  and  sold  them  to  him  myself, 
and  at  a  fair  price  seemingly,  yet  it  wasn't  the  price  the 
cattle  would  have  brought  in  an  open  market.  The  next' 
week  O'Donell  said  he  did  not  have  any  vessels  and  stood 
me  off — he  did  not  want  to  take  any  and  yet  Morgan 
wanted  to  get  rid  of  some  of  the  cattle.  I  called  O'Donell 
over  the  phone  at  Chicago  then,  and  said  we  must  take  some 
notice  of  Morgan's  cattle.  He  said  they  would  use  ten  or 
twelve  car  loads  on  the  next  boat;  to  order  the  cattle  up. 
Morgan  came  up  with  the  cattle.  O'Donell  turns  up  at 
eight  or  nine  o'clock  in  the  day  and  says  to  me  that  they 
could  not  buy  any  cattle,  better  send  them  on  to  Chicago. 
I  called  him  in  my  private  office  and  locked  the  door,  pulled 
my  gun  and  threw  it  right  in  his  face  and  said;  ''I  am 
going  to  kill  you  right  here — Wilson  ought  tq  have  killed 
you,  but  I  am  going  to  do  it  right  here.  You  cannot  do 
this  to  me. ' '  He  threw  up  both  hands — I  made  him  throw^ 
them  up — and  commenced  getting  white.  He  said :  ' '  Rhody, 
don't  kill  me,  don't  kill  me — you  don't  want  me  to  lose  my 
'place.  Morgan's  cattle,"  he  said,  "were  marked  to  go  to 
Chicago  to  be  divided,  and  they  have  got  to  go  there. 
Allerton  said  if  I  buy  any  more  cattle  he  would  have  to 
discharge  me  and  Morgan's  cattle  belong  in  the  Chicago 
territory  to  be  divided  there. ' ' 

After  he  got  down  on  his  knees  and  prayed  awhile  I  let 
him  go.  I  have  never  spoken  to  him  since.  I  am  a  very 
superstitious  man — he  has  had  all  kinds  of  trouble,  and  if 
he  has  not  been  in  hell  with  the  trouble  he  has  had,  he  has 
no  conscience. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  127 

Malott,  my  banker,  at  this  time,  or  McKee,  his  vice-presi- 
dent, an  uncle  of  ' '  Baby ' '  McKee,  called  me  to  the  bank  and 
said:  ''You  owe  $10,000  here,  and  as  you  are  having  a 
good  deal  of  trouble  here  we  want  our  money."  I  said: 
"Why,  I  don't  owe  you  a  cent.  I  only  borrowed  $10,000 
about  a  week  ago  on  a  ninety-day  paper. ' '  He  said :  ' '  Oh, 
yes  you  do. "  I  said :  ' '  Well,  then,  come  over  to  my  law- 
yer's,"  and  we  went  across  the  street  to  Ed  Daniels,  now 
master  in  chancery,  and  has  been  a  partner  of  Ferd  Win- 
ters, who  was  successor  to  Harrison.  My  attorney  went  to 
see  him  and  they  both  said  I  need  not  pay  till  it  was 
due.  I  knew  that.  I  said:  "If  your  bank  is  going  to 
fail  I  will  go  and  get  the  money,  otherwise  I  will  pay  it 
when  it  is  due."  When  it  was  due  I  paid  it.  Later  on 
Malott  protested  a  check  that  was  issued  in  Illinois,  a  thing 
that  was  never  done  to  me  before,  and  he  Imew  I  was  sick 
in  bed  at  home;  I  got  it  in  the  day  between  the  time  others 
got  their  money  and  I  made  my  deposit.  I  was  always  late 
in  depositing.  I  had  been  overchecked  perhaps  thirty  or 
fifty  thousand  dollars  between  deposits  and  had  been  over- 
checked  in  other  banks  probably  as  much  as  sixty  or  sev- 
enty-five thousand  dollars.  He  threw  the  $1,200  check  out, 
and  I  got  notice  by  postal  of  an  overcheck  of  $2.68.  That 
was  the  amount  that  I  was  short  to  meet  the  $1,200  check. 
This  was  the  first  time  in  my  business  career  I  ever  received 
a  notice  of  an  overcheck.  This  was  all  done  to  embarrass 
me.  They  went  after  my  credit,  a  thing  that  had  never  been 
questioned  from  the  day  I  first  commenced  business.  How- 
ever, I  will  finish  this  point  later,  and  I  wiU  take  up  the 
King  of  Ireland,  Rauh,  the  fertilizer  Jew,  and  Malott,  the 
Indianapolis  banker,  when  I  am  touching  on  Kingan  &  Co. 


128  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

in  number  six.  The  fact  is,  I  will  have  to  touch  the  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad  in  practically  all  of  them,  and  when  I 
am  touching  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  I  will  be  touching 
Malott. 

Note,  several  times  I  had  fine  steers  taken  out  of  a  car 
load  passing  through  Pittsburg  and  bulls  and  Jerseys  put 
in  their  places,  and  three  hundred  pound  hogs  taken  out  and 
pigs  put  in  their  places,  just  as  Dutcher  had  permitted. 
Dutcher  is  a  gentleman  beside, Allerton  and  O'Donell.  The 
fact  is,  Dutcher  has  always  been  a  clever  man,  and  when  I 
would  call  Dutcher  down  on  a  thing  he  would  say  it  would 
not  happen  again,  and  would  always  put  it  on  to  the  com- 
mission man  in  the  yard,  which  was  no  doubt  true,  but 
Wilson  warned  me  to  watch  the  Turk,  for  at  Pittsburg  the 
King  of  Ireland  would  cut  out  a  big  one  and  put  in  a  little 
one  himself — he  was  educated  that  way,  so  Wilson  told  me. 
That  was  his  long  suit  when  a  boy. 

The  greatest  tearer  down  known  in  this  country,  and 
perhaps  to  the  world,  is  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad.  They 
tore  down  all  the  small  roads  in  Indiana.  The  first  road 
they  tore  down  in  this  State  was  the  J.  M.  &  I.,  running 
from  Indianapolis  to  Madison  and  Jeffersonville.  They 
tore  down  the  Indianapolis  &  Vincennes,  a  road  running 
one  hundred  miles  through  a  fertile  country.  They  tore 
down  the  Vandalia  line,  running  from  Terre  Haute  to 
South  Bend.  All  these  roads  had  been  built  by  subscrip- 
tions and  by  assessments  on  the  people  along  the  lines  of 
the  roads.  They  first  broke  down  the  value  of  the  stock  in 
the  markets  until  the  roads  were  forced  into  the  hands  of 
receivers,  and  then  when  sold  on  mortgage  bought  them  in 
for  practically  nothing.    Those  roads  had  to  have  an  outlet  to 


With  the  Beef  Trust  129 

New  York  and  the  East,  and  the  Pennsylvania  was  the  only 
road  running  East  they  could  connect  with,  and  hence  they 
fell  an  easy  prey  to  that  giant  corporation.  Products  to 
foreign  countries  had  to  go  over  the  Pennsylvania  road. 
And  when  the  other  roads  went  into  the  receiver's  hands, 
and  the  Pennsylvania  got  control  of  the  stock,  they  soon 
pushed  the  stock  up  to  where  it  paid  from  99  to  par,  and 
they  watered  that.  I  can  cite  other  points  similar  in  other 
States,  but  I  am  only  calling  attention  to  that  coming  under 
my  own  observation.  Of  recent  years  they  have  constructed 
some  roads  in  Pennsylvania  and  the  coal  regions — they 
found  they  had  to,  as  all  other  roads  were  getting  in  there, 
such  as  the  Reading,  the  Delaware,  Lackawanna  &  Western, 
the  Lehigh  Valley  and  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio.  Their  terri- 
tories are  in  the  iron  and  coal  region.  They  have  com- 
menced constructing  some  and  no  doubt  will  construct  many 
others.  Their  management  at  this  time  is  good ;  in  fact,  it 
has  always  been  good  after  they  got  control,  but  before 
they  got  control  of  the  Vandalia  road  north  to  South  Bend 
you  could  not  get  any  service  on  it  at  all  or  through  In- 
dianapolis to  Vincennes.  I  operated  practically  all  along 
the  lines  of  these  two  roads,  and  took  a  large  per  cent,  of 
the  live  stock  I  bought  over  their  roads.  It  would  take 
twenty-four  hours  to  come  from  Vincennes  to  Indianapolis 
before  the  Pennsylvania  got  full  control,  while  now  the  dis- 
tance is  covered  in  about  eight  or  ten  hours.  While  they 
were  tearing  down  they  always  managed  not  to  connect  at' 
Indianapolis  for  the  East.  They  wanted  to  embarrass 
everybody  connected  with  the  buying  of  live  stock  and  force 
them  to  unload  and  feed  in  the  Indianapolis  yards,  in  which 
they  were  heavy  stockholders.     They  are  past  masters  in 

[9] 


130  Twenty  Yeabs  in  Hell 

tearing  down  a  road.  Now  this  same  thing  applies  to  some 
other  trunk  lines,  but  not  to  Hill  or  to  Harriman.  There 
is  a  vast  difference  between  them. 

Let  me  cite  one  instance  of  the  sharp  practices  of  Chief 
Priest  AUerton  and  his  man  Friday,  the  King  of  Ireland. 
Some  eight  years  ago  they  got  up  a  scheme  to  work  the 
butchers  in  New  York,  Jersey  City,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore 
and  Washington,  and  in  fact  all  the  butchers  in  the  East 
on  the  line  of  their  road  who  were  accustomed  to  buying 
their  cattle  by  the  carload.  The  scheme  was  to  get  up  a 
big  fat  stock  show  at  the  Pittsburg  East  Liberty  stock  yards, 
which  were  owned  by  the  Pennsylvania  Company.  Some 
three  months  before  they  began  advertising  the  show  the 
Turk  went  out  and  bought  the  very  best  cattle  from  the 
feeders  in  Illinois,  Indiana,  Ohio  a,nd  Kentucky,  and  I 
think  they  got  a  few  carloads  from  Missouri. 

At  that  time  the  best  cattle  on  the  market  was  selling 
from  five  to  five  and  a  half  cents;  possibly  the  Pinnell 
land  might  have  brought  six  cents.  The  Turk  had  the 
feeder  ship  the  cattle  in  his  own  name,  but  the  cattle  really 
belonged  to  the  Pennsylvania  road.  The  road  gave  the 
shippers  a  free  pass  and  paid  their  hotel  bills  at  the 
Shenly,  the  big  hotel  in  Pittsburg.  They  advertised  the 
stock  show  very  extensively  all  over  the  country.  When 
the  show  opened  they  ran  a  free  train  of  sleepers  with  big 
streamers  on  the  cars,  which  were  very  attractive,  and 
brought  all  the  leading  butchers  from  Pennsylvania,  Mary- 
land, District  of  Columbia,  New  Jersey  and  New  York. 
They  leased  the  hotel  and  paid  all  the  bills.  I  was  invited 
and  went  over.  I  was  at  that  time  operating  a  new  stock 
yards  at  Indianapolis.     I  refused  to  take  a  pass  but  stopped 


With  the  Beef  Trust  131 

at  their  hotel  to  see  what  was  going  on,  paying  my  own 
bills.  I  went  to  the  show.  They  had  a  hundred  cars  or 
more  of  cattle  on  exhibition.  A  few  stragglers  and  farm- 
ers got  in  with  some  good  cattle  which  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  did  not  own. 

The  market  opened  up.  I  had  a  seat  by  the  side  of 
Richard  Webber  and  George  Wilson.  The  first  cattle  put 
up  was  the  Pinnell  cattle.  I  think  Pinnell  had  only  five 
or  six  carloads  in  the  string.  At  the  start  off  I  think  Web- 
ber bid  seven  cents  for  the  choice  of  the  five  or  six  loads  of 
Pinnell  cattle.  The  bidding  advanced  until  the  offer 
reached  about  eight  cents.  The  managers  knew  that  Web- 
ber would  get  the  best  load,  so  they  put  the  Pittsburg  Pack- 
ing and  Provision  Company,  practically  their  own  com- 
pany, in  to  do  the  driving.  The  bidding  went  on  until  the 
cattle,  according  to  my  recollection,  brought  nine  cents. 
All  the  Pinnell  cattle  brought  eight  and  a  half  to  nine 
cents.  Every  butcher  who  went  on  the  free  train  had  to 
take  home  a  load  of  the  Pennsylvania  Company's  cattle. 
Webber  said  to  me  that  he  did  not  want  to  crowd  the  boys 
and  he  would  only  buy  a  few  carloads.  The  Pittsburg 
Packing  and  Provision  Company  kept  bidding,  but  not 
buying,  as  long  as  the  Pennsylvania  Company's  cattle 
lasted.  Later  when  they  got  to  selling  the  cattle  of  the 
stragglers  and  farmers,  who  had  good  cattle,  in  fact,  many 
of  them  as  good  as  most  of  the  Pennsylvania  Company's 
cattle,  except  the  Pinnell,  then  the  Pittsburg  Packing  and 
Provision  House  dropped  out  of  the  bidding,  and  the  cat- 
'tle  went  at  from  five  and  a  half  to  six  and  a  half  cents. 
Thus  the  fellows  who  waited  got  their  cattle  worth  the 
money. 


132  Twenty  Years  in  Hei.l 

Wilson  was  there  and  said  to  me  that  it  was  the  greatest 
theft  he  ever  saw;  that  they  ought  to  be  sent  to  the  peni- 
tentiary; that  the  Turk  had  not  paid  him  any  rebate  for 
six  months  and  had  been  lying  to  him;  that  he  was  going 
to  see  Allerton,  who  had  made  a  big  speech  at  the  banquet, 
and  that  he  would  be  damned  if  he  did  not  kill  him  and  the 
Turk  both  if  they  did  not  settle ;  that  they  could  not  work 
him.  "Wilson  and  I  sat  together  at  the  banquet,  and  he 
followed  Allerton  out.  I  saw  Wilson  after  his  talk  with  the 
High  Priest  and  he  told  me  that  Allerton  had  promised  to 
send  him  a  check  for  his  rebates.     This  stopped  the  killing. 

SECOND — N.  E.  HOLEIS  &  CO.,  EAST  CAMBRIDGE,  MASS. 

When  I  first  knew  this  company  I  think  there  were 
three,  possibly  four  l)rothers,  perhaps  only  one  or  two  of 
them  are  living  now^  I  have  known  them  for  about  thirty- 
two  years,  when  I  first  commenced  buying  hogs  on  commis- 
sion to  go  into  New  England.  Prior  to  that  time  I  was 
buying  on  my  own  account.  I  did  ver}^  little  business  in 
New  England,  selling  only  at  Albany  to  New  England  peo- 
ple, such  as  Squire,  Charles  North  &  Co.,  Niles  Brothers, 
White,  Peavy  &  Dexter  and  other  slaughterers.  A  large 
dealer  in  cattle  in  New  England  was  Billie  Munroe,  who  is 
now  dead.  He  came  AVest,  and  was  one  of  the  largest  buy- 
ers back  in  the  sixties  and  seventies.  Later  on  Sturtevant 
&  Haley  became  very  large  cattle  dealers. 

After  I  left  the  stock  yards  I  turned  all  my  export  cat- 
tle into  New  York  State,  New  York  City,  Philadelphia  and 
Baltimore,  yet  there  were  a  number  of  times  I  sent  cattle 
to  be  loaded  on  the  boats  at  Boston. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  133 

Note  the  list  of  houses  that  are  now  operated  by  what 
is  known  as  Swift  &  Co.,  of  which  the  Hollis  Company  are 
the  fathers. 

Distributing  Houses  of  Swift  &  Co.,  New  England: 

N.  E.  Hollis  &  Co.,  Boston. 

Skinner  &  Arnold,  Boston. 

Sturtevant  &  Haley,  F.  H.  Market,  Boston. 

Fletcher  &  Co.,  Boston. 

Sands  &  Furber,  F.  H.  Market,  Boston,  vegetables. 

Arthur  Lawrence  &  Co.,  Boston. 

Medford  Street  Market,  Somerville. 

New  England  Produce  Co.,  Boston. 

E.  H.  Moulton,  Haverhill. 

Swing  &  Co.,  Lawrence. 

Swift  &  Bailey,  Lowell. 

Lowell  Provision  Co.,  Lowell. 

Nashua  Beef  Co.,  Nashua,  N.  H. 

Manchester  Provision  Co.,  Manchester,  N.  H. 

Concord  Beef  Co.,  Concord,  N.  H. 

St.  Albans  Beef  Co.,  St.  Albans,  Yt. 

Burlington  Beef  Co.,  Burlington,  Vt. 

Portland  Beef  Co.,  Portland,  Me. 

Bath  Beef  Co.,  Bath,  Me. 

Lewiston  Beef  Co.,  Lewiston,  Me. 

Augusta  Beef  Co.,  Augusta,  Me. 

Gardner  Beef  Co.,  Gardner,  Me. 

Waterville  Beef  Co.,  Waterville,  Me. 

H.  L.  Handy  Co.,  Springfield,  Mass. 

Geo.  Nye  Co.,  Springfield,  Mass. 

Meriden  Provision  Co.,  Meriden,  Ct. 


134  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

Strong,  Barnes  &  Hart,  New  Haven. 
Bridgeport  (2  houses),  Bridgeport,  Conn. 
New  Britain  (1  house).  New  Britain,  Conn. 
And  many  other  towns  and  cities  with  whose  names,  be- 
sides those  going  under  the  name  of  Swift  &  Co.,  Swift 
Beef  Co.,  C  F.  &  E.  C.  Swift,  their  houses  are  connected. 

Many  names  of  houses  have  been  changed  to  Swift 
&  Co.,  and  Swift  Beef  Co.,  Swift  Provision  Co.,  in  all  these 
places  and  numbers  of  others  not  mentioned. 

While  Armour,  Morris  &  Co.  (National  Packing  Co., 
Swift),  Cudahy,  have  these  distributing  houses  also,  they  do 
no  slaughtering  and  work  in  unison  with  the  Swifts  on 
prices,  so  that  one  price  made  in  Chicago  controls  all  New 
England,  practically  a  Beef  Trust  in  everything  but  name. 

Swift  Slaughtering  &  Packing  Houses,  in  New  England. 

North  Packing  &  Provision  Co.,  Somerville,  hogs. 
John  P.  Squire  &  Co.,  E.  Cambridge,  hogs. 
Sturtevant  &  Haley  Co.,  E.  Cambridge,  beef. 
New  England  Dressed  Meat  and  Wool  Co.,  Somerville, 

beef  and  sheep. 
Niles  Bros,  (dismantled),  Belmont,  hogs. 
Control  of   Butchers'    Slaughtering   and   Rend.    Co., 

Brighton,  beef,  hogs,  sheep  and  calves. 
White,  Peavy  &  Dexter  Co.,  Worcester,  hogs. 
Springfield  Provision  Co.,  Springfield,  hogs. 
Meriden  Provision  Co.   (dismantled),  Meriden,  Conn., 

hogs. 
Merwin  Provision  Co.   (dismantled),  now  soap  works, 

New  Haven,  Conn.,  hogs. 
Sperry  &  Barnes,  New  Haven,  Conn.,  hogs. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  135 

G.  H.  Davis,  Norwich,  Conn.,  hogs. 
I.  B.  Mason  &  Son   (dismantled).  Providence,  E-.  I., 
hogs. 

Comstock  &  Co.,  supposed  to  be  Swift,  but  no  proof 
of  it,  work  with  them;  besides  owning  and  operating  the 
foregoing  slaughtering  houses,  they  have  driven  the  whole- 
sale distributing  houses  in  the  large  cities  to  cover,  and 
where  there  are  5,000  inhabitants  they  have  a  beef  house  or 
provision  distributing  plant,  which  not  only  sells  beef,  but 
also  hog  products,  sheep,  calves,  poultry,  butter  and  eggs. 

They  had  the  money  and  they  put  in  business  a  man 
who  was  known  back  in  the  '70s  as  Parson  Swift,  and  who 
was  the  Swift  who  ran  the  Methodist  church  at  the  Chi- 
cago stock  yards.  He  commenced  about  '72  to  '74.  He  is 
the  father  of  the  Swift  boys.  I  do  not  know  any  of  the 
boys  personally,  as  I  have  never  had  any  business  with  the 
Swifts  in  Chicago,  but  I  did  know  intimately  and  personally 
E.  C.  Swift,  who  was  really  the  only  Swift  so  far  as  finan- 
ciering is  concerned,  from  the  start  to  the  finish,  and  who 
was  two  years  younger  than  the  Parson,  and  the  Hollis  Com- 
pany financed  him  to  start  out.  At  this  very  time  when 
they  bought  the  Squires'  stock  at  14  cents  on  the  dollar  they 
reorganized  the  company  with  a  capital  stock  of  $5,000,000, 
under  the  law  of  New  Jersey,  when  the  plant  really  cost 
them  only  about  $1,000,000 ;  and  they  reissued,  I  think,  ten 
or  fifteen  millions  of  bonds  and  stock  to  pay  this  one  mil- 
lion dollars.  One  of  the  Hollis 's  and  I  think  two  of  them, 
told  me  how  they  were  doing  it  Also  E.  C.  Swift  at  two 
different  times  when  I  was  in  his  private  office  said :  ' '  Do 
you  see  those  twenty-five  or  thirty  clerks  ?  They  are  trans- 
ferring the  Squires  stock  into  the  Swift  stock.    This  is  mak- 


136  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

ing  money  pretty  fast  and  pretty  easy.  The  public  will  buy 
it  at  par." 

The  receivers  employed  me,  and  paid  me  a  big  salary  to 
operate  their  thousand  cars  and  buy  from  the  farms  to 
the  packing  house.  The  fact  is,  I  was  called  to  Boston — 
had  a  conference  with  the  directors  in  charge  of  the  reor- 
ganization at  the  time  the  Squires  were  taken  out  of  the 
receivers  hands.  I  told  them  what  I  could  do  in  the  way 
of  furnishing  hogs  loaded  in  their  cars  in  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Kentucky,  Illinois  and  Iowa.  I  made  arrangements  with 
them  to  open  an  office  in  Indianapolis  at  the  board  of  trade. 
(This  was  at  the  time  I  was  put  out  of  my  own  stock  yards 
at  Indianapolis.)  I  fitted  up  an  office  of  four  rooms,  em- 
ployed my  telegraph  operators  and  operated  both  wires, 
also  operated  both  phones,  and  I  bought  all  of  the 
Squires'  hogs  for  something  like  a  year  and  a  half  or  two 
years — something  like  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  double  deck  cars  a  week,  both  in  the  market 
and  on  the  farms  to  the  packing  house,  going  direct 

Note :  The  man  whom  I  have  said  manipulated  Squire 's 
house  while  it  was  in  the  receiver's  hands  and  after  it  was 
taken  out  was  E.  C.  Whitford,  a  Yale  College  graduate 
and  a  very  shrewd  attorney.  He  apparently  is  the  whole 
thing,  or  was  the  last  time  I  was  in  Boston,  of  the  Squire, 
North  and  Niles  Brothers  packing  houses. 

Let  me  cite  you  the  facts  as  to  what  called  me  to  Bos- 
ton at  this  time.  I  was  buying  heavily  along  the  line  of 
the  Mississippi  River  in  Illinois.  I  had  bought  a  load  of 
hogs  from  C  L.  I'ietrie.  He  was  a  big  feeder  close  to 
Burlington,  Iowa,  on  the  Illinois  side.  I  know  that  Secre- 
tary Wilson  must  have  known  him,  as  he  fed  thousands 


With  the  Beef  Trust  137 

of  hogs  and  hundreds  of  cattle.  He  shipped  grenerally  a 
load  or  two  at  a  time,  lie  sent  forward,  my  recollection  is, 
one  load  of  hogs  that  weighed  about  350  pounds  each.  They 
run  like  eggs,  and  as  I  recollect  there  were  fourteen  or  fif- 
teen of  them  condemned  by  the  government — all  fed  on  the 
same  feed  and  all  the  same  kind  of  hogs.  I  took  the  mat- 
ter up  with  Secretary  Wilson  and  cited  the  fact  of  having 
eighteen  hogs  condemned  in  one  or  two  loads  that  had  been 
shipped  from  Pietrie.  When  the  hogs  were  condemned 
they  would  make  a  barrel  of  lard  out  of  them.  They  said 
it  was  tuberculosis  they  had.  I  had  my  man  there  looking 
after  my  business.  When  they  would  stick  a  knife  into  a 
big  hog  and  it  would  show  a  blood  shot,  and  when  the  in- 
spector would  come  down  and  see  the  blood  he  would  con- 
demn the  hog.  Of  course  they  may  have  stood  in  with  the 
inspector.  The  sticker  is  the  one  that  gave  them  the  tuber- 
culosis. Then  they  would  take  the  hog  at  a  price  to  me  of 
one  and  a  half  cents  per  pound.  He  would  have  to  go  in 
the  tank  for  grease,  so  they  said.  Hogs  at  that  time,  as  I 
recollect  it,  were  selling  at  six  cents  per  pound,  and  where 
they  would  cost  me  something  like  $25,  after  being  con- 
demned they  would  get  them  for  about  $5.  Of  course  it 
was  of  advantage  to  the  houses  to  have  them  condemned. 
As  I  have  said.  I  stated  all  of  these  facts  to  Secretary  Wil- 
son. He  came  back  at  me  and  said  that  he  would  change 
the  inspector.  When  a  hog  would  only  show  a  blood  shot 
or  tuberculosis  in  the  neck  they  would  have  the  head  cut 
off  and  the  other  part  would  pass. 

When  I  received  Secretary  Wilson's  letter  I  went  on  to 
Boston,  stayed  around  there  a  few  days  catching  on  and 
then  pulled  the  letter  on  Whitford,  and  he  said  that  was 


138  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

something  that  they  could  not  get  done,  and  T  said:  *'You 
don't  want  it  done.  You  have  taken  my  hogs  worth  $25 
for  $5."  This  was  after  he  had  taken  me  in  an  automobile 
over  to  Harvard  College  for  lunch.  He  wanted  to  order 
champagne,  and  did  order  it,  but  I  told  him  that  I  could 
not  drink  champagne  and  that  I  never  drank  anything  dur- 
ing business  hours.  This  was  at  the  same  time  that  E.  C. 
Swift  and  the  Hollises  were  changing  the  Squires  stock  into 
the  Swift  stock.  I  found  at  the  same  time  they  were  taking 
oif  3^  per  cent,  from  wet  to  dry  weight,  a  thing  unknown 
when  I  sold  hogs  on  dressed  weight  in  Cincinnati  and 
Louisville,  where  I  had  sold  thousands  of  them  thirty-five 
or  forty  years  ago.  On  big  hogs  thoy  would  give  me  $1  to 
kill  them  and  weigh  them  the  next  morning.  They  got  all 
the  gut  fat  and  the  hearts  and  livers.  This  same  Squires 
house  got  the  same  on  me  and  still  took  off  3%  per  cent, 
from  wet  to  dry  weight.  In  Cincinnati  the  hogs  would  be 
killed  in  the  evening  and  weighed  off  of  the  hooks  in  the 
morning.  Most  of  the  houses  weighed  their  hogs  wet  and 
would  take  off  1^/2  to  2  per  cent,  and  some  of  them  would 
take  off  2%  per  cent,  in  figuring  the  dry  weight.  They 
had  been  taking  off  2^/^  per  cent,  right  along  on  me  when 
I  was  selling  dry  meat,  but  I  caught  them  at  it  when  they 
started  to  take  off  31/2  per  cent.  I  called  Mr.  Niles,  who 
was  president  of  the  company,  and  Mr.  Crocker,  who  was 
vice-president  and  treasurer,  into  their  private  office  and 
said:  ''Here  you  are  stealing;  this  is  the  worst  kind  of 
stealing."  Both  of  them  threw  up  their  hands  and  said 
they  did  not  know  it.  I  called  in  my  man,  Mr.  Plummer, 
who  had  been  Niles 's  bookkeeper  in  the  old  house,  and  he 
s^id  that  he  had  recently  discovered  it.     I  told  them  that 


With  the  Beef  Trust  139 

was  the  greatest  theft  that  I  ever  knew.  They  threw  both 
hands  up  and  said  that  Whitford  did  it.  I  was  going  to 
leave  the  next  day.  I  took  it  up  with  Whitford.  I  had  a 
meeting  with  Niles  and  Whitford  in  Young's  Hotel.  I  had 
to  go  home  that  day.  After  having  a  talk  with  them  they 
both  admitted  to  me  that  they  had  only  done  it  for  two  or 
three  months,  and  offered  me  $2,000  for  it.  I  got  very 
{ingry  and  talked  very  sharp  to  them.  Niles  seemed  wor- 
ried to  death.  I  said,  ''$2,000,  heM!"  and  left  them.  We 
had  some  correspondence  about  it  and  afterwards  I  sent  my 
^^ttorney  over  there  to  settle  with  them.  It  was  at  a  time 
that  I  did  not  want  to  be  bothered  with  any  more  lawsuits. 
He  wired  me  that  he  could  get  $3,000,  and.  I  wired  him  that 
he  had  better  settle  and  quit  them.  I  never  did  any  more 
business  with  tliem  from  that  time  on.  This  was  the  great- 
est theft  I  ever  knew  perpetrated  on  anyone,  together  with 
having  the  hogs  stuck  so  they  would  show  tuberculosis,  es- 
pecially big  ones,  so  that  they  could  get  them  condemned. 
In  the  next  book  I  will  be  able  to  show  this  more  fully. 

They  had  their  own  cars,  which  were  the  first  double  deck 
private  cars  ever  constructed  for  the  purpose  of  shipping 
live  hogs  and  sheep — some  twenty-six  or  twenty-eight  years 
ago.  My  recollection  is  the  first  cars  were  named  Central 
Vermont.  When  these  cars  were  constructed  they  were 
equipped  with  water  troughs  and  arranged  so  that  the  hogs 
could  be  fed  in  the  cars  while  in  transit.  All  this  was  done 
by  John  P.  Squire  &  Co.,  so  the  cars  could  be  sealed  at  the 
shipping  point,  and  the  seal  not  broken  until  they  reached 
the  packing  house,  which  prevented  any  swapping  in  the 
stock  yards.  My  recollection  is  the  company  owned  about 
twelve    to    fourteen   hundred    of    them    at    the     time    of 


140  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

Squire's  death.  A  few  years  later  Charles  North  & 
Co.,  who  were  very  strong  competitors  of  the  Squires, 
and  Niles  Bros.,  later  the  Boston  Packing  and  Pro- 
vision Company  (This  is  the  house  that  is  on  my 
letter  head  and  operated  by  the  Swifts  now  as  a 
fertilizer  house,  after  being  wrecked)  ;  I.  B.  Mason  &  Son, 
Providence;  Comstock  &  Co.,  Providence;  White,  Peavy 
&  Dexter,  "Worcester;  S.  E.  Mervin  &  Sons,  and  Sperry  & 
Barnes,  of  New  Haven,  saw  that  the  Squires  had  made  a 
new  move  to  keep'  from  going  into  the  stock  yards;  then 
they  all  went  together  and  built,  to  my  recollection,  about 
one  thousand  to  twelve  hundred  cars,  calling  them  Western 
Livestock  Express  and  St.  Paul  cars.  They  got  mileage 
of  from  $14  to  $16  from  the  railroads  on  a  load  of  hogs 
from  Chicago  or  Indianapolis,  or  other  points,  according  to 
distance,  and  would  make,  a  trip  every  two  weeks.  Squires 
run  his  cars  in  train  loads,  about  twenty-five  to  forty  cars 
in  a  train,  as  he  bought  in  Chicago  daily  one  or  two  trains, 
and  shipped  over  the  Grand  Trunk  and  Central  Vermont 
from  Chicago.  He  would  make  Boston  from  Chicago  or 
Indianapolis  in  about  three  or  four  days,  and  the  empty 
cars  would  come  back,  fifty  to  sixty  cars  in  a  train,  they 
having  right  of  way  of  everything  except  the  fast  passen- 
ger or  express  trains,  in  something  like  four  or  five  days. 
They  figured  they  could  make  about  three  trips  with  a  car 
a  month.  The  cost  of  construction  of  a  car  at  the  time  when 
first  built  was  something  like  $500  to  $550.  This  was  very 
profitable  and  very  soon  a  number  of  private  parties 
reached  out  and  went  into  the  private  car  business,  putting 
the  water  troughs  in  the  double  deckers. 

The  New  York  slaughterers  began  to  see  that  New  Eng- 


With  the  Beef  Teust  141 

land  had  them  skinned  to  a  frazzle  by  going  through  Buf- 
falo and  other  stock  yards  without  being  unloaded,  and 
that  the  cars  would  come  from  the  original  shipping  point 
to  destination  without  the  seal  being  broken.  They  saw 
there  could  not  be  any  more  stealing  in  the  stock  yards. 
My  customers  in  New  York,  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore 
commenced  using  some  of  Squire 's  cars  at  seasons  when  he 
was  not  using  all  of  them.  Squire  would  get  the  mileage  and 
it  was  very  profitable  for  them,  but  they  used  a  great  many 
of  the  St.  Paul  and  Western  Livestock  Express  cars.  Soon 
the  St.  Paul  car  people,  under  the  management  of  Henry 
L.  Millis,  came  to  Indianapolis,  and  solicited  me  to  use  their 
cars;  said  they  would  give  me  $5  a  car  if  I  would  use 
them.  He  brought  a  letter  from  Ed  Peavy,  of  the  firm  of 
White,  Peavy  &  Dexter  (the  house  for  which  I  bought 
nearly  everything  they  killed  for  nearly  twenty  years.  I 
always  bought  for  them  white  hogs  when  I  could  get  them) 
who  was  a  personal  friend,  saying  that  he  was  a  large 
stockholder  in  the  cars  and  that  he  had  retired  and  sold  out 
their  packing  house  to  Swift  &  Co.,  but  did  not  sell  the  cars. 
I  also  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Mason,  I  think.  I  told 
Mr.  Millis  that  I  would  like  to  please  Mr.  Peavy,  also  Mr. 
Mason,  that  they  had  both  been  my  customers  and  many 
of  the  other  car  stockholders  were  at  that  time.  He  said 
the  place  I  could  help  him  most  would  be  in  New  York,  as 
he  had  more  cars  than  there  was  demand  for.  In  reply,  I 
said  to  Mr.  Millis,  "Why,  I  never  could  take  a  rebate.  I 
will  give  you  the  names  of  my  customers'  and  you  can  go 
down  there  and  see  what  you  can  do. "  I  think  this  was  be- 
fore the  Sherman  Anti-trust,  or  Elkins  laws  went  into  ef- 
fect.    I  gave  him  a  list  of  my  customers  and  he  said  he 


142  Twenty  YeakS  in  Hell 

wanted  some  one  to  look  after  these  cars  and  keep  a  record 
of  them  and  report  them.  He  asked  me  if  I  would  not  do  it. 
I  told  him  no,  it  would  not  be  done  by  me  in  anyway,  but 
that  I  would  give  him  a  man  that  would  do  it,  and  I  fur- 
nished a  man.  The  records  were  kept  in  my  office  by  a  man, 
in  fact  two  of  them  worked  at  it,  and  had  to  make  up  the  re- 
ports every  day  of  how  many  cars  went  out  and  how  many 
came  in.  I  learned  in  New  York  shortly  afterwards  while 
there  that  Millis  gave  my  customers  quite  a  rebate,  but  I 
told  them  I  did  not  want  to  know  what  they  were  doing  in 
the  rebate  business.  He  soon  got  to  pushing  some  of  his 
cars  on  the  Pennsylvania  Road.  First  the  Pennsylvania 
Road  did  not  want  to  take  them ;  they  had  no  cars  with  seals 
and  none  with  water  troughs  in  them.  They  insisted  all  the 
stock  brought  over  their  road  would  have  to  be  unloaded 
at  Pittsburg  for  feed.  At  first  they  only  let  Millis'  cars  go 
as  far  as  Pittsburg  and  there  put  the  stock  in  their  own 
cars  to  go  to  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Washing- 
ton and  Richmond,  as  they  did  not  want  to  pay  mileage  on 
any  cars,  but  wanted  the  mileage  for  their  own  cars.  I 
think  possibly  later  they  unloaded  and  reloaded  them  in 
the  same  cars,  then  the  Turk  would  have  a  whack  at  them 
while  in  the  pen,  getting  a  big  one  out,  and  a  little  one  in. 

About  this  time  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  changed 
practically  all  their  stock  cars,  double  and  single  deck,  and 
called  them  private  cars,  and  named  them  the  Keystone 
Livestock  cars.  In  this  way  they  could  give  a  rebate  by 
going  to  the  shipper,  who  was  using  the  Millis  cars,  or  any 
other  shipper,  and  get  them  to  use  their  cars  under  the  pre- 
tense that  they  could  give  them  a  rebate  without  violating 
the  Elkins  law.     This  was  some  two  years  or  more  after 


With  the  Beef  Trust  143 

Millis  came  to  me.  O'Donnell,  the  Turk,  King  of  Ireland, 
came  from  Chicago  to  see  me,  and  wanted  to  know  if  I 
would  use  the  Keystone  cars,  saying  he  would  give  me  $5 
per  car.  I  said  no.  I  told  him  as  I  did  Millis  that  I  would 
give  him  a  list  of  my  customers.  He  said  he  did  not  want 
to  give  a  rebate  to  all,  but  only  to  the  big  shippers.  How- 
ever, he  went  to  see  some  of  my  customers  and  persuaded 
them  to  use  their  cars.  He  made  out  the  vouchers  in  my 
name  and  sent  them  to  me  for  $5  a  car  and  some  $6,  and  I 
forwarded  the  vouchers  to  the  customers.  In  making  my 
trips  East  my  customers  commenced  inquiring  if  there  were 
not  some  rebates.  I  frankly  told  them  that  O'Donell  had 
given  some  rebates,  and  that  I  had  forwarded  the  vouchers 
to  those  entitled  to  them.  I  tipped  it  off  to  all,  and  0  'Don- 
ell  came  rushing  over  from  Chicago  to  see  me,  and  said, 
''You  are  playing  heU.  Every  little  fellow  shipping  from 
one  to  five  cars  a  week  wants  a  rebate.  You  even  tipped  it 
off  to  ^.  Schenk  &  Sons,  of  Wheeling,  and  they  are  de- 
manding $5  a  car  on  Wheeling  shipments,  and  their  haul  is 
only  half  the  distance  from  Chicago  to  New  York." 
Schenk  had  been  a  very  heavy  regular  customer  of  mine 
for  as  much  as  twenty  years.  In  fact,  I  bought  nearly  all 
they  killed.  They  bought  a  close  sort  of  the  best  grades  of 
200  to  250-pound  hogs,  the  best  in  the  market.  O  'Donell  got 
in  a  fuss  with  the  Schenks  and  they  quit  him  and  began 
shipping  via  the  Wheeling  &  Lake  Erie  and  Baltimore  & 
Ohio  roads.  Neither  of  these  roads  came  into  Indianapolis, 
and  my  shipments  to  them  had  to  go  out  on  the  Big  Four  or 
the  C,  H.  &  D.  from  Indianapolis  to  connect  with  the  B. 
&  0.  or  the  Wheeling  &  Lake  Erie.  They  made  shipments 
over  these  roads  for  awhile,  and  in  a  few  months  the  Penn- 


144  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

sylvania  got  nervous  about  losing  the  business  and  walked 
up  to  the  Schenk's  office  and  I  understand  gave  them  the 
$5  rebate  on  the  short  haul. 

THIRD — NELSON  MORRIS   &   CO.,   CHICAGO. 

I  first  became  acquainted  with  Nelson  Morris  I  think 
in  1865  or  '66  when  he  came  West  to  pick  up  a  few  cattle. 
He  soon  drifted  into  Chicago  and  commenced  buying  dead 
hogs  in  the  stock  yards  and  went  into  the  fertilizer  business. 
You  understand  the  fertilizer  and  junk  business  is  a  fa- 
vorite one  for  Jews,  for  they  will  not  work  on  a  farm.  He 
also  commenced  buying  cripples.  What  are  known  as  crip- 
ples in  the  stock  yards  are  those  that  cannot  walk  from  the 
ears  to  the  pen.  He  went  to  the  front  fast  in  a  short  time. 
He  was  industrious  and  a  hard  worker,  and  would  work  all 
night  if  necessary.  He  was  one  of  the  sure  "early  to  bed 
and  early  to  rise. ' '  Some  nights  he  never  went  to  bed.  He 
got  a  little  place  to  kill  his  cripples  and  render  his  deads, 
and  soon  expanded  into  a  packing  house,  and  he  finally  got 
to  dividing  the  white  grease  he  got  out  of  the  dead  hogs 
and  the  black  grease  after  rendering  them,  later  on  called 
tanking  them.  He  put  the  good  dead  hogs  in  one  tank  and 
the  bad  ones,  that  is,  those  that  were  nearly  gone,  in  an- 
other tank.  As  I  recollect  it,  in  about  '72  to  74  he  com- 
menced the  refining  of  lard.  He  was  one  of  the  first  re- 
finers, yet  probably  Washington  Butcher  Sons,  of  Baltimore, 
got  to  be  one  of  the  largest  refiners  and  dealers  in  lard. 
They  were  one  of  the  oldest  and  strongest  houses  dealing  in 
provisions  and  lard  in  the  United  States  back  forty  or  sev- 
enty-five years  ago.  As  fast  as  the  older  ones  died  the 
younger  ones  came  along  and  took  up  the  business,  and  soon 


With  the  Beef  Tkust  145 

they  went  into  the  business  of  refining  and  making  imper- 
fect lard  so  extensively  that  they  killed  off  their  trade,  as 
Great  Britain  or  any  other  place  would  not  take  it.  The 
younger  set  of  Washington  Butcher  Sons  failed  about  1880, 
possibly  as  late  as  '81.  At  that  time  I  had  speculated  some- 
what on  the  Chicago  Board  of  Trade,  buying  largely  pro- 
visions. I  spent  considerable  time  going  back  and  forth  to 
Chicago,  and  I  commenced  buying  what  was  known  as  clear 
ribbed  sides,  and  at  the  time  of  their  failure  I  owned  one 
million  seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds  of  it. 
The  report  of  Washington  Butcher  Sons '  failure  caused  me 
to  lose  $22,000  in  one  hour  trying  to  get  out  at  this  time. 
I  quit  the  speculating  and  have  not  had  a  deal  in  Chicago 
since.  At  that  time  Old  Hutch  was  the  whole  thing  in  Chi- 
cago. He  was  the  cuckoo  on  the  Board  in  his  time.  He 
could  give  Patten  cards  and  spades. 

I  bought  for  Nelson  Morris  as  much  as  sixty  or  seventy 
car  loads  of  cattle  in  one  day,  and  in  fact  there  were  times 
when  I  contracted  for  him  for  as  much  as  three  or  ten  thou- 
sand head  in  May  or  June — sometimes  earlier  and  some- 
times later,  with  an  option  to  take  them  in  July,  August 
or  September  from  the  large  feeders  in  Indiana,  men  that 
fed  from  one  hundred  to  fifteen  hundred  cattle,  such  as  the 
Morgans,  Blue  Jeans  Williams  and  Lockridge;  also  Sam 
Cutsinger,  who  always  fed  from  1,000  to  1,600  head  on 
starch  slop  in  Edinburg  and  Columbus,  Ind.,  who  was  the 
best  feeder  I  ever  knew.  His  cattle  always  sold  for  half  a 
dollar  to  a  dollar  more  per  100  than  any  other  cattle,  es- 
pecially in  Great  Britain.  Everybody  wanted  Cutsinger 
cattle. 

Nelson  got  so  he  knew  all  the  best  feeders.     The  cattle 

[10] 


146  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

I  bought  for  Nelse  at  that  time  were  largely  for  export — 
he  always  exported  good  ones.  Later  on  when  he  got  to 
putting  so  many  on  slop  I  bought  thousands  of  feeders  for 
him  every  year.  He  had  fifteen  to  twenty  years  ago,  and 
up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  practically  control  of  all  the  slop 
of  all  the  stillhouses  in  the  United  States.  Afterward  the 
trusts  made  certain  arrangements  and  divided  the  territory 
of  the  country.  That  gave  Nelse  all  the  slop  in  Ohio,  Ken- 
tucky, Indiana  and  Pennsylvania.  None  of  the  others  could 
get  in  on  it  except  the  "High  Priest,"  Allerton.  He  had 
some  stillhouses.  Nelse  always  put  bulls,  when  he  could  get 
enough  of  them,  where  he  could  feed  them  on  slop.  He 
has  had  as  many  as  ten  thousand  at  a  time  in  Peoria,  111.  I 
often  shipped  to  Peoria,  also  to  Terre  Haute,  practically  all 
the  bulls.  I  also  often  shipped  to  Kentucky  and  also  to 
Pennsylvania  for  Nelse. 

I  received  many  telegrams  from  Nelse.  He  always 
signed  them  Nelson  Morris,  and  I  knew  he  sent  them  him- 
self. "Buy  everything  in  the  yards;  don't  let  anything 
get  away.  Send  exporters  to  Newport  News  (or  some  other 
place  where  he  had  boats) ,  the  feeders  to  Peoria  (or  to  Ken- 
tucky or  somewhere  else),  the  butchers  and  canners  that 
have  big  calves  in  them  to  Chicago.  Answer  quick  what 
you  have  done. ' ' 

He  knew  me  and  knew  he  could  not  drive  me,  and  yet  he 
knew  that  I  would  buy  some.  He  was  a  very  nervous  man. 
He  kept  as  much  as  a  half  a  cord  of  red  cedar  sticks  about 
ten  inches  long  and  one  and  a  half  inches  wide  stacked  up 
in  his  office  and  a  sharp  knife  near  by,  where  he  could  whit- 
tle until  he  had  piled  up  shavings  all  around.  He  had  four 
or  five  stenographers  to  take  his  telegrams  for  him,  and 


With  the  Beef  Tkust  147 

possibly  he  wired  everybody  who  was  buying  for  him  at  the 
same  time  he  wired  me  to  purchase  stock,  and  in  a  short 
time  the  answers  commenced  coming  in.  He  got  so  many 
that  possibly  by  nine  or  ten  o'clock  I  would  get  a  telegram 
from  him  reading,  ''What  have  you  got?  Report.  Don't 
buy  anything  for  me — overstocked."  I  replied,  "Too  late. 
Got  a  good  many  but  did  not  get  them  off. ' ' 

The  best  thing  about  Nelse  was  whenever  you  bought 
them  for  him  he  would  stand  hitched.  He  never  turned 
down  a  trade,  and  I  bought  thousands  of  cattle  for  him 
that  I  had  not  paid  a  cent  on.  although  the  rule  was  to  pay 
$5  a  head  on  cattle  and  $1  on  hogs,  and  he  had  not  paid  a 
cent  on,  and  when  the  cattle  market  would  break  or  did  not 
go  to  his  expectations  then  his  contract  cattle  would  be  big 
losers,  sometimes  $1  to  $1.50  per  hundred.  Of  course  every- 
body knew  that  I  was  buying  for  Nelson  Morris,  and  they 
knew  that  Nelson  was  good  and  they  knew  that  I  was  good, 
and  that  we  both  would  stand  hitched.  Nelse  would  order 
the  cattle  in.  He  would  say,  ''They  will  ruin  me,  but  I 
will  have  to  take  them."  He  never  turned  a  trade  dowQ. 
This  was  the  longest  suit  he  had  in  business. 

Now  I  could  go  further  with  Nelse,  but  I  will  have  to 
take  him  up  later  with  some  others.  He  was  in  a  way  about 
as  smart  as  any  of  them  at  times,  but  at  times  he  was  a  big 
loser.  He  would  have  been  worth  five  hundred  millions  if 
he  had  not  been  a  big  loser  by  buying  too  many  gold  bricks. 

Let  me  cite  when  he  bought  Arthur  Jordan's  chicken 
houses  in  Indiana,  Ohio,  Kentucky  and  Illinois — some  sixty 
to  one  hundred  plants,  paying  something  like  six  to  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  for  them.  I  happened 
to  be  in  Chicago  some  time  afterwards  and  met  Nelse  and 


148  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

he  said :  ' '  Rhody,  that  Jordan  has  rained  me ;  he  sold  me 
a  gold  brick;  I  cannot  can  any  more  chickens.  I  cannot 
use  my  calves  out  of  the  canners;  nobody  can  can  chicken 
unless  they  can  can  calves. ' '  He  bought  a  good  many  gold 
bricks.  He  once  had  to  go  behind  Parson  Swift,  as  he 
called  him.  You  understand  that  one  of  Nelson 's  sons  mar- 
ried Parson  Swift's  daughter,  and  one  of  Pai^on  Swift's 
sons  married  Nelson's  daughter.  Swift  ran  the  Methodist 
church  at  the  Chicago  stock  yards  and  Nelse  ran  the  Jewish 
tabernacle.  Swift  worked  the  church  all  the  time,  but 
Nelse  only  a  part  of  the  time,  but  was  a  good  producer. 

I  understand  that  Parson  Swift  was  finally  in  trouble 
during  the  year  1893  and  Nelson  stood  by  him.  That  was 
generally  understood  in  the  trade.  It  was  before  E.  C. 
Swift  had  gotten  so  strong  and  his  New  England  banks  were 
in  a  good  deal  of  trouble,  the  same  as  Fletcher 's  bank  was, 
referred  to  in  my  Jimtown  speech.  They  were  largely  con- 
servative, same  as  Fletcher 's. 

FOURTH — SWIFT    &    CO.,    CHICAGO. 

Swift  &  Company  is  only  a  myth  or  a  name.  The  Par- 
son Swift  was  supposed  to  be  the  whole  thing,  but  the  fact 
is  the  Hollis  Company  originally  started  him,  the  same  as 
Morris,  in  the  fertilizer  business.  Then  they  drifted  into 
hides,  handling  about  all  the  hides.  Hides  are  classed  with 
fertilizer,  as  they  take  a  great  deal  of  fertilizer  off  in  dress- 
ing hides.  They  soon  went  into  the  wool  business,  then 
soon  got  to  buying  sheep  and  lambs,  and  were  among  the 
first  exporters.  They  got  in  with  the  money  powers  and 
they  saw  that  they  were  money  makers ;  in  fact,  they  could 
not  lose  in  that  kind  of  business,  making  five  hundred  per 


With  the  Beef  Tkust  149 

cent,  out  of  dead  hogs.  The  white  grease  comes  from  dead 
hogs.  All  stock  yards  now  sell  dead  hogs  at  half  a  cent  or 
a  cent  a  pound.  Thirty  years  ago  we  had  three  men  in  In- 
dianapolis buying  dead  hogs  on  these  prices.  One  hog 
might  bring  two  or  three  dollars  per  hundred  according  to 
size  and  how  long  dead. 

They  went  into  the  little  town  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  one 
of  the  richest  in  the  early  ages,  and  probably  so  now  for  its 
size,  money  loaners  and  money  schemers.  This  is  the  little 
town  where  the  Czar  comes  from. 

I  never  knew  the  Parson  and  never  knew  any  of  his 
sons;  in  fact,  I  did  not  deal  with  such  little  fellows  as  he 
was  when  he  went  West,  but  I  did  know  E.  C.  Swift  and 
knew  him  well  after  he  absorbed  my  old  friend"  Charlie 
North,  a  man  for  whom  I  had  bought  as  many  as  thirty 
double  deck  car  loads  of  hogs  in  a  day  without  an  order. 
Charlie  served  as  president  of  the  company  the  first  year 
after  they  bought  control  of  the  company.  The  next  year 
they  chopped  his  head  off  and  elected  E.  C.  Swift,  who  be- 
came the  whole  thing.  The  next  year  he  sold  out  all  his 
stock  and  went  South  and  bought  North  Carolina  railroads 
and  African  diamond  and  gold  mines,  and  in  less  than  five 
or  eight  years  he  was  broke.  I  was  in  Boston  just  before 
he  died.  He  was  in  debt.  He  had  a  little  office  and  had 
on  a  seedy  suit  of  clothes  that  he  had  worn  for  some  time, 
and  when  I  got  up  to  go  he  said :  ' '  Rhody ,  could  you  loan 
me  $50?"  I  told  him  yes,  and  willingly  did  it.  He  was  a 
grand  good  man  and  somewhat  nervous  like  Nelson  Morris. 
He  was  about  as  large  a  dealer  as  John  Squire,  yet  they 
were  very  jealous  of  each  other  and  very  strong  competi- 
tors.    I  would  buy  for  both  of  them,  and  sometimes  John 


150  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

would  take  me  inside  of  his  private  room  and  shut  the  door 
and  try  to  get  me  to  figure  out  how  many  pigs  there  were 
in  the  West,  and  he  would  say:  ''What  is  Charlie  North 
doing?"  I  would  tell  him  I  did  not  know,  and  maybe 
within  an  hour  Charlie  would  take  me  into  his  private  office 
and  go  through  about  the  same  as  John  had.  They  were 
both  friends  of  mine  and  both  large  customers.  I  always 
tried  to  tell  them  about  the  prospects  of  the  number  of  pigs 
there  would  be  and  that  would  be  marketed  that  fall  or 
spring.  They  had  confidence  in  my  judgment  as  to  the 
possibility  of  the  crop.  John  was  the  farthest  seeing  man 
I  ever  knew,  and  he  would  have  all  the  new  repairs  made 
before  Charlie  would  find  out  what  he  was  going  to  do, 
and  then  Charlie  would  make  the  same  repairs  the  next 
year  or  two  afterwards.  They  started  in  business  prac- 
tically about  the  same  time  and  were  the  first  people  that 
ever  slaughtered  a  hog  in  the  United  States  for  the  purpose 
of  selling  fresh  pork  in  the  spring  or  summer.  I  think 
possibly  the  first  time  fresh  pork  sold  in  the  summer  was 
in  1864  or  '65. 

The  first  lot  ever  bought  in  Hamilton  county  or  in  Madi- 
son county,  and  in  fact  in  western  Indiana,  was  a  car  load 
of  hogs  I  bought  that  spring  or  summer.  I  bought  at  El- 
wood  at  that  time — about  half  in  Hamilton  county  and  the 
other  half  in  Tipton  county — and  shipped  over  the  Penn- 
sylvania and  Junction  road  to  Cincinnati  in  September 
when  I  got  home  from  the  army  in  '65.  I  sold  them  to 
Fort,  Sadler  &  Company,  at  that  time  practically  the  first 
firm  that  went  into  the  commission  business  in  Cincinnati 
during  the  war.  They  did  their  business  at  the  Brighton 
yards,  the  only  yards  there  were  at  the  time.     They  were 


With  the  Beef  Trust  151 

practically  in  the  center  of  Cincinnati.  I  went  there  in 
the  morning  about  sun-up  and  met  Sadler  and  Fort.  I 
had  bought  the  hogs  at  5  cents  per  pound;  I  did  not  know 
what  they  would  sell  for.  John  Rule  fed  twenty  in  Ham- 
ilton county  and  W.  H.  Harmon  fed  thirty-two  in  Tipton 
county.  When  I  got  out  to  the  yards  they  tried  to  buy  the 
hogs  from  me.  I  did  not  know  what  they  were  worth  until 
I  read  the  Enquirer.  I  told  them  I  would  take  the  top  of 
the  market  in  the  Enquirer.  They  baffled  me.  It  was  the 
first  time  I  was  ever  in  Cincinnati,  and  I  was  hanging  on  to 
the  cars  to  keep  from  getting  lost  or  run  over.  I  had  some 
boys  driving  them  a  mile  through  the  city  to  the  Brighton 
yards.  Those  boys  said  those  pigs  would  bring  9  cents  a 
pound,  and  one  little  fellow  said  they  would  bring  9^/4 
cents.  I  got  the  Enquirer  and  found  the  top  of  the  market 
was  9  cents.  I  soon  caught  on  and  I  asked  914  cents  a 
pound.  They  got  mad,  and  I  said  I  would  just  keep  them, 
and  in  a  few  minutes  they  took  the  hogs.  I  made  $192  on 
that  load  of  hogs.  That  gave  me  confidence  in  mj^self ,  and 
from  then  on  1  was  the  whole  thing  in  central  Indiana. 

I  met  Si  Mull,  who  was  one  of  the  grandest  men  I  ever 
knew,  and  whose  son  has  a  letter  in  the  brief.  He  was  one 
of  the  biggest  feeders  of  hogs  on  slop — had  thousands  of 
them.  Also  Isaac  Loder;  he  was  a  great  man,  and  Train 
Caldwell  was  another.  These  were  all  Rush  county,  In- 
diana men,  the  grandest  county  in  Indiana,  and  had  more 
big  moneyed  men  than  any  five  counties  in  the  State  at  that 
time.  They  said  there  were  a  lot  of  stock  hogs  in  Northern 
Indiana,  and  asked  me  if  I  would  not  go  up  there  and  buy 
them,  as  there  was  a  failure  of  corn  this  year  in  the  north. 
I  asked  them  how  many  they  wanted  and  they  said  twenty 


152  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

or  thirty  thousand  to  put  on  stillhouse  slop  feed.  It  daz- 
zled me  at  the  t'ime  and  I  told  them  I  did  not  have  any 
money.  I  had  only  about  $1,000.  Si  Mull  pulls  out  a 
package  of  $5,000  and  hands  it  to  me  and  says :  ' '  You  take 
this  money  and  buy  those  hogs."  This  was  the  first  time 
I  had  ever  seen  him.  I  told  him  he  had  better  not  give  me 
all  that  money,  that  I  would  run  away  with  it,  and  he  said : 
' '  I  will  risk  you.  You  won 't  run ;  you  look  good  to  me  and 
I  will  take  the  chance. ' '  When  I  came  back  home  with  the 
$5,000  package  Mull  had  given  me  with  which  to  buy  hogs 
I  showed  it  to  my  mother.  I  suppose  she  had  never  seen 
$5,000  at  one  time  before  in  her  life.  She  put  both  arms 
around  me  and  kissed  me  and  said :  ' '  God  speed  you.  Don 't 
ever  betray  this  or  any  other  man."  I  bought  thousands 
of  hogs  for  them.  There  was  never  any  question  after  this 
about  my  credit  in  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois,  or  anywhere 
else  where  I  did  business.  The  action  of  Mr.  Mull  and  my 
success  in  buying  for  him  gave  me  confidence  in  myself  and 
established  my  credit  with  all  the  Cincinnati  packers.  I 
could  get  any  amount  of  money  anywhere  with  which  to 
ship  stock  in  Illinois,  Indiana,  Ohio  and  parts  of  Kentucky. 
It  was  just  like  getting  money  from  home  where  you  have 
a  liberal  father.  My  credit  never  was  questioned  anywhere 
until  the  Swift  people  tied  themselves  up  with  the  High 
Priest  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  and  divided  the  coun- 
try. 

Enough  on  that,  as  I  will  have  to  take  them  up  in  con- 
nection with  other  men. 


With  the  Beef  Trus:^  1^3 

FIFTH — HAMMOND    &    CO.,    DETROIT,    MICH. 

I  will  not  dwell  long  with  Hammond  &  Co.  Back  in 
the  70 's  I  used  to  buy  as  much  as  eight,  ten,  twelve  or  fif- 
teen cars  of  hogs  a  day  for  Hammond,  Standish  &  Co.,  of 
Detroit.  Both  the  members  of  the  firm  were  my  personal 
friends  and  were  elegant  gentlemen — no  better  in  the  trade. 
Some  time  about  twenty-three  to  twenty -six  years  ago  Ham- 
mond &  Co.  got  to  shipping  provisions  to  Providence,  R.  I. 
They  got  also  to  exporting  largely.  They  got  in  with  Com- 
stock  and  the  money  powers  of  Providence.  In  the  little 
town  of  Hammond,  Indiana,  on  the  line  of  Indiana  and 
Illinois,  they  organized  a  company  to  slaughter  cattle  for 
the  New  England  and  export  trade.  They  were  among  the 
first  to  handle  dressed  cattle  for  export.  There  was  no  one 
doing  this  at  that  time  except  Tim  Eastman.  They  bought 
the  ground  and  built  what  is  known  as  the  Hammond  pack- 
ing house  at  Hammond  for  the  purpose  of  slaughtering  cat- 
tle. They  slaughtered  only  high-grade  cattle.  They 
shipped  their  stuff  into  New  England  and  to  Europe,  and 
that  trade  took  nothing  but  high  grade  cattle  at  that  time. 
Some  time  after  that  Hammond  died  and  Comstock,  one 
of  the  rich  men  of  Providence,  became  the  president  of  the 
company.  The  Czar  is  no  doubt  more  familiar  with  this 
deal  than  I  am.  I  want  to  be  fair  with  him,  and  ask  if  he 
is  not  a  large  stockholder  in  this  and  other  companies. 
Eighteen  or  twenty  years  ago  an  English  syndicate  bought 
the  Chicago  stock  yards  for  about  fifteen  or  twenty  million 
dollars.  Then  what  was  known  as  the  ' '  Big  Four ' '  bought 
five  or  six  thousand  acres  of  land  noAv  covered  by  the  city 
of  Gary.     Nelson  Morris  was  really  one  of  the  promoters. 


154  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

He  told  me  all  about  it  at  the  time.  Armour,  Swift,  Cuda- 
h.y,  and  in  fact  all  of  the  big  ones  at  that  time  agreed  to 
move  out  and  build  new  plants  and  a  new  stock  yard  where 
Gary  is  now,  near  Hammond.  In  that  case  Hammond 
would  not  have  to  move,  and  the  English  syndicate  would 
have  the  Chicago  stock  yards  and  no  business.  The  Eng- 
lish syndicate  which  had  bought  the  stock  yards  took  fright 
and  the  deal  was  not  made.  Nelson  told  me,  I  think,  the 
English  syndicate  gave  them  seven  million  dollars  not  to 
move,  and  they  were  to  keep  all  the  land. 

Nelson  used  to  tell  me  everything  when  I  would  go  to 
Chicago  and  get  confidential  with  him,  but  in  the  deal  Ham- 
mond was  to  abandon  the  town  named  for  him  and  move 
into  Chicago  with  his  slaughter  houses,  which  he  did. 

SIXTH SCHWARZCHILD   &  SULZBERGER. 

I  will  not  dwell  much  on  S.  &  S.  I  never  did  any  busi- 
ness with  them.  They  were  elegant  gentlemen,  so  far  as  I 
knew,  in  the  early  days.  They  were  the  only  slaughter 
house  at  the  east  foot  of  35th  street,  in  fact,  the  only  slaugh- 
ter house  at  the  east  foot  of  any  street  so  far  as  I  know. 
They  killed  high  grade  cattle  and  bought  very  largely  from 
Buffalo,  Ohio  and  Chicago,  but  they  never  bought  any  cat- 
tle in  Indiana  until  after  the  Indianapolis  Stock  Exchange 
put  me  out.  They  sent  a  young  man  to  Attica,  Indiana, 
by  the  name  of  Joseph,  and  he  forwarded  cattle  to  them 
from  western  Indiana  and  eastern  Illinois  (in  Joseph  Can- 
non's district).  Later  he  married  the  daughter  of  one  of 
the  firm  and  became  the  whole  thing  so  far  as  buying  the 
cattle  in  he  West  was  concerned,  and  when  they  put  me 
out  of  business  in  Indianapolis  that  fertilizer,  Eauh,  took 


With  the  Beef  Tkust  155 

my  man  Abe  Kahn  away  from  me,  whom  I  picked  up  after 
he  had  failed  twice.  I  thought  he  was  going  to  commit  sui- 
cide. I  built  him  a  house  and  put  him  to  buying  cattle  for 
me.  He  was  a  man  of  fair  judgment.  He  had  been  a 
wholesale  dealer  in  cattle.  He  prospered  and  expanded  so 
I  had  him  build  him  a  good  house.  His  four  boys  worked 
for  me  at  different  times.  He  had  one  of  the  best  wives  I 
ever  knew — there  never  was  a  better  one.  I  was  a  pall- 
bearer at  her  funeral,  and  was  at  the  church  at  the  con- 
firmation of  their  boys,  a  very  solemn  service.  She  was 
always  grateful  to  me  for  it.  To  my  utter  astonishment 
when  Rauh  became  president  of  the  stock  yards  Kahn  came 
to  me  and  said:  ^'I  have  been  with  you  a  long  time.  I 
think  I  had  better  go  into  business  myself.  The  boys  want 
to  go  into  business. ' '  I  said, ' '  All  right,  Mr.  Kahn. ' '  Rauh 
sent  them  East  and  arranged  with  S.  &  S.  to  become  the 
buyers  for  them  in  the  Indianapolis  yards.  In  dividing  up 
the  territory  at  that  time  Nelson  Morris  was  not  to  buy  any 
more  cattle  in  Indianapolis  yards  and  S.  &  S.  was  to  take 
eastern  Indiana,  Ohio  and  parts  of  Kentucky.  This  was 
done  to  take  away  from  me  some  of  my  good  customers. 

They  went  along  and  bought  there  until  I  left,  and  I 
presume  are  still  buying  there,  but  finally  Swift  worked  in 
and  got  control  of  S.  &  S.,  as  I  understand  it,  and  dis- 
charged Joseph.  He  brought  suit  in  the  United  States 
court  and  obtained  judgment  for  about  $250,000,  which  has 
recently  been  affirmed  by  the  Supreme  Court. 

While  in  South  America  I  found  that  S.  &  S.  had  gone 
down  there  and  put  in  cold  storage  and  refrigerators,  and 
arranged  to  ship  dressed  beef  from  South  America  to  Great 
Britain.     It  is  now  really  Swift.     They  had  never  slaugh- 


156  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

tered  a  hog  until  about  fifteen  years  ago,  and  do  not  slaugh- 
ter very  many  now  except  the  kind  of  stuff  that  Flagler  is 
making  you  use  in  all  his  big  hotels.  While  in  Florida  I 
stopped  at  five  or  six  of  his  hotels,  paying  from  $8  to  $10 
per  day,  which  are  his  rates  at  Miami,  Palm  Beach,  Daytona 
and  St.  Augustine. 

I  took  special  pains  to  see  what  kind  of  stuff  he  was 
supplying  to  his  guests,  as  during  my  travels  in  the  South 
and  in  Cuba  I  found  none  of  the  hotels  that  were  a  corpora- 
tion but  what  was  buying  with  a  contract  from  some  house 
of  the  beef  trust.  I  found  also  that  Flagler  was  getting  all 
his  meat,  eggs  and  poultry  from  S.  &  S.  I  did  not  see  an 
egg  in  his  hotels  that  was  not  a  storage  egg,  and  that  did 
not  have  a  spot  like  a  chicken 's  eye  in  the  center  of  it,  and 
looked  like  it  had  been  in  storage  for  a  year  or  more.  He 
was  feeding  at  some  of  his  hotels  also  what  are  known  as 
California  hams,  which  are  in  reality  shoulders.  No  one 
could  eat  the  bacon  he  served,  as  it  was  all  quick  chemically 
cured  and  came  out  of  hogs  known  as  ''roughs"  and 
"culls"  at  all  stock  yards,  the  kind  Kingan  had  to  take  at 
Indianapolis  when  I  was  buying  all  the  good  ones.  Enough 
of  S.  &  S.  at  this  time. 

SEVENTH^KINGAN  &  CO.,  INDIANA,   AND  ST.   CLAIR  &   CO., 
CEDAR  RAPIDS,  IOWA. 

I  must  start  with  this  firm  when  I  first  knew  them. 
During  the  war  the  firm  was,  to  my  best  recollection,  called 
Reid  &  Kingan,  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  I  am  not  sure  whether 
they  came  here  before  the  war  or  during  the  war,  but  cer- 
tainly about  that  period.  While  in  Cincinnati  they  failed 
— I  cannot  say  just  whether  it  was  in  ^^Q,  '67  or  '68.     Reid 


With  the  Beef  Trust  157 

took  sick  and  I  think  died  in  Cincinnati,  yet  he  may  have 
gone  back  to  Belfast  with  his  four  boys.  The  boys,  as  I 
recollect  it,  were  named  Sammy,  Willie,  Robert  and  Jimmie. 
Jimmie  always  lived  in  Belfast.  As  I  understand  it,  their 
mother  used  to  live  in  Belfast.  Samuel,  who  is  probably 
ninety  years  old,  is  still  living,  and,  as  I  now  recall  it, 
is  bossing  the  job  in  Belfast.  Thomas,  whom  I  boarded 
with  in  the  same  hotel  for  twenty  years,  after  he 
broke  went  to  Joseph  Patterson,  of  Rush  county,  Indiana. 
There  was  where  most  of  the  big  men  were  at  that  time. 

I  do  not  know  how  many  of  the  Kingans  were  interested 
in  the  Cincinnati  house,  but  when  they  failed  in  Cincinnati, 
Jos.  Patterson,  who  lived  in  Rush  county,  Ind.,  and  a  great 
friend  of  the  firm  of  Caldwell  &  Loder,  and,  in  fact,  a 
friend  of  all  the  packers  in  Cincinnati  and  connected  with 
the  Cincinnati  houses  and  with  plenty  of  money,  went  be- 
hind Thomas  Kingan,  who,  I  think,  was  the  oldest  of  the 
Kingan  brothers,  which  were  Thomas,  James  and  Samuel. 
Samuel  is  still  living  in  Belfast.  James  was  killed  by  walk- 
ing off  of  a  train  of  cars  between  Boston  and  New  York, 
something  like  thirty  years  ago.  It  was  said  he  got  up  in 
his  sleep  and  walked  off  the  car.  At  any  rate,  his  mangled 
body  was  found  beside  the  track.  He  was  a  very  pushing 
man  and  a  big  speculator  in  provisions  in  New  York.  There 
had  been  a  break  in  the  provision  market  at  New  York  and 
there  were  many  comments  as  to  the  real  circumstances  sur- 
rounding his  death. 

Samuel  Kingan  was  not  often  in  America,  but  always 
lived  in  Belfast  and  is  still  living  there  at  the  age  of  about 
ninety  years.  He  was  regarded  as  the  real  balance  wheel 
cf  the  firm  all  the  time,  and  I  understand  still  has  his  hand 


158  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

on  the  button.  Thomas  was  a  very  careful  man;  he  died 
some  eight  or  ten  years  ago  at  his  castle  near  London.  He 
and  I  boarded  at  the  G-rand  Hotel  at  Indianapolis  about 
twenty-five  years  ago,  and  married  about  the  same  time. 
He  was  a  very  fine  man  and  confidential  with  me,  we  always 
took  breakfast  together,  about  five  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
We  continued  living  in  the  same  hotel  after  our  marriage. 
Two  of  my  children  were  born  in  the  hotel.  Kingan  never 
had  any  children.  When  he  died  his  large  estate  went  to 
one  of  the  Reid  boys.  The  elder  Reid,  so  I  understand,  mar- 
ried the  only  sister  of  the  three  Kingan  boys.  Patterson 
and  Kingan  bought  a  small  plant  at  Indianapolis,  as  I  recol- 
lect it,  and  that  was  sometime  about  the  time  when  the 
Kingans  left  Cincinnati.  They  made  money  practically 
from  the  start,  but  Patterson  was  old  and  was  known  in  the 
trade  as  "Uncle  Joe."  He  soon  drew  out  and  the  other 
Kingans  took  his  place.  My  information  was,  the  St.  Clairs 
were  very  rich  people  in  Belfast  and  they  went  behind  them 
and  thej"  prospered  from  that  time  on.  Some  time  in  the 
early  70s,  I  think  about  75  or  77,  the  St.  Clairs  built  a 
small  house  in  Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa,  known  as  St.  Clair  and 
Company.  I  understand  the  house  has  always  been  con- 
trolled and  manipulated  by  the  Belfast  house.  They  are 
both,  I  think,  incorporated  under  the  Belfast  laws  and  pay 
their  taxes  mostly  in  Ireland. 

When  the  stock  yards  opened  here  thirty-two  years  ago, 
Thomas  Kingan,  himself,  was  doing  practically  all  the  busi- 
ness here.  He  had  a  bookkeeper  he  brought  here  in  about 
70,  known  as  John  Moore.  He  was  one  of  the  best  I  ever 
saw.  Moore  did  all  the  bookkeeping  and  Thomas  Kingan 
did  all  the  shipping  and  buying  and  looking  after  the  weigh- 


With  the  Beef  Tbust  159 

ing,  and  even  watching  the  packing.  Later  an  elegant  gen- 
tleman from  Belfast  came  over.  He  was  called  a  dude  at 
that  time,  because  he  dressed  in  English  style.  His  name 
was  John  St.  Clair.  He  became  a  buyer  at  the  stock  yards 
at  the  time  the  stock  yards  opened,  and  was  a  main  competi- 
tor of  mine.  We  got  along  all  right,  as  he  was  a  gentleman. 
About  a  year  afterwards,  as  he  was  going  between  his  office 
and  the  packing  house,  he  got  killed  between  tAvo  freight 
cars.  After  that,  his  cousin,  Thomas  St.  Clair,  came  over. 
He  was  a  fine  man  and  we  got  along  together  all  right. 
Soon  they  sent  a  man  by  the  name  of  James  Cunning,  who 
was  skilled  in  buying  hogs  in  the  Belfast  market,  having  be- 
gun when  he  was  a  boy.  He  did  everything  quickly  and 
caught  onto  the  market  readily.  I  could  not  always  tell 
what  he  was  going  to  do  by  his  actions.  The  fact  is  he  is 
worth  a  half  a  million  a  year  more  to  the  house  than  the 
man  that  is  bossing  the  job  now,  but  they  had  to  take  him 
back  to  manage  the  house.  Some  twenty  or  twenty-three 
years  ago  they  put  a  man  by  the  name  of  John  M.  Shaw 
there  to  superintend  the  buying.  He  had  a  nephew  whose 
father  was  one  of  the  professors  in  one  of  the  big  colleges 
at  Belfast,  Ireland,  and  was  educated  in  his  father's  college, 
but  was  sent  to  America  to  buy  hogs.  As  I  understand  it, 
it  was  John's  sister's  only  son.  John  put  him  first  to  carry- 
ing the  telegrams  and  keeping  the  weights  in  the  yards. 
Here  is  where  all  the  friction  began.  I  had  four,  five  or  six 
men  watching  what  was  going  on  and  watching  every  move 
the  Kingans  made,  as  they  were  strong  competitors  of  mine. 
These  men  of  mine  did  all  the  inspection  and  buying  for 
me.  I  did  not  have  a  ten-year-old  boy  doing  an  errand  for 
me  that  was  not  smarter  than  this  nephew,  Spears,  was — in 


160  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

fact  my  little  colored  boy  was.  They  would  get  a  tele- 
gram and  when  John  would  come  into  the  yards,  and  he 
usually  came  late,  they  would  report  the  same,  and  as  John 
was  bossing  the  job  he  had  that  Spears  running  around  like 
a  chicken  with  his  head  cut  off.  When  he  would  walk  slow 
after  reading  his  telegram,  we  knew  we  could  go  slow,  but 
if  he  walked  fast  we  knew  he  wanted  them.  I  would  simply 
throw  up  a  stick  and  give  my  men  the  signal.  We  changed 
our  signs  every  day,  so  they  could  not  catch  on,  and  in  two 
to  ten  minutes  we  w^ould  have  all  the  good  ones  in  the  yards 
and  they  would  not  have  any.  They  would  get  mad  and 
have  to  go  and  buy  hogs  elsewhere  or  else  do  without  them, 
and  generally  all  the  good  hogs  were  sold  in  the  other  mar- 
kets by  that  time,  as  the  others  opened  at  six  and  seven 
o'clock,  and  our  market  at  eight,  consequently  they  could 
only  get  ''culls"  in  any  market.  I  never  could  tell  in  the 
morning  within  fifteen  or  twenty  cents  what  I  was  going  to 
pay.  I  always  bought  to  the  best  advantage,  which  of 
course  everybody  should  do.  This  is  the  time  when  they  or- 
ganized the  exchange  to  put  me  out.  Spears  got  to  be  the 
whole  thing.  He  was  not  in  the  United  States  two  years,  or 
perhaps  three,  before  he  was  lecturing  in  Purdue  Univer- 
sity, telling  what  he  knew  about  hogs  and  what  he  knew 
about  meats.  To  get  any  good  hogs  the  Kingans  had  to  go 
to  Iowa,  and  they  located  five  stock  yards  they  could  con- 
trol, at  Oskaloosa,  Perry,  Burlington  and  Des  Moines,  and 
then  they  got  good  hogs.  They  soon  had  my  man  Johnson 
operating  these  yards  under  the  name  of  John  P.  Squire  & 
Co.,  but  they  were  really  Swift  &  Co.  I  made  this  deal  for 
E.  C.  Swift. 

I  never  spoke  to  Spears,  but  he  was  the  whole  thing,  and 


With  the  Beef  Teust  161 

his  uncle  knew  there  was  something  in  the  air;  he  would 
tell  him  how  I  was  doing  business,  and  for  him  to  watch  the 
signs.  This  is  where  the  friction  got  strong  between  the 
Kingans  and  myself.  Kingan  had  practically  three-fourths 
the  commission  men  and  the  men  of  the  stock  yard  company 
in  Indianapolis,  instructing  them  that  if  they  sold  me  this 
good  stock  the  Kingans  would  not  buy  their  hogs. 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  stealing  by  bookkeepers  and 
all  of  the  commission  men  had  been  robbed  by  them  but  two 
firms.  Note  one  case — a  firm  which  was  very  friendly  to 
me  came  around  to  my  office  and  told  me  that  their  book- 
keeper had  gone  in  the  closet  to  commit  suicide,  and  wanted 
me  to  run  in  there  and  save  him.  I  went  and  found  him. 
He  had  worked  for  me  at  one  time.  I  went  over  the  matter 
with  him  and  told  him  to  tell  me  what  the  amount  was.  He 
said  $3,800  would  make  him  good  in  the  bank.  I  told  him 
that  I  would  give  him  a  check  for  $8,800  and  make  him 
good,  but  I  found  it  was  about  $6,000.  I  had  to  go  into  the 
bank  and  endorse  for  this  man,  a  Jew,  to  bridge  the  time 
over. 

There  was  scarcely  any  daj^  that  two  or  three  firms  did 
not  come  to  me  to  get  my  check  for  a  day  or  two  as  ' '  kites ' ' 
to  deposit  to  make  their  bank  account  good  until  such  a 
time  as  they  would  get  checks  floating  in  the  country.  All 
of  them  were  heavy  speculators  in  option  among  one  or  two 
bucket  shops  in  the  stock  yards. 

Let  me  cite  one  case  in  reference  to  W.  M.  Johnson,  who 
was  an  honest  man  and  a  brother  to  ex-Congressman  Jim 
Johnson,  a  well-known  man.  He  was  one  of  the  most  con- 
servative and  honest  and  best  dealers  in  the  yards.  He  re- 
ported robbing  was  going  on  all  the  time  and  he  kept  watch- 

[111 


162  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

ing  to  keep  from  losing  himself;  he  had  three  bookkeepers 
who  had  robbed  him,  and  he  said  one  James  Dick,  who  had 
been  buying  hogs  for  Kingan  &  Co.,  had  been  robbing  him 
and  everybody  else.  He  set  a  trap  and  a  big  heavy  bull 
came  in,  weighing  1,800  pounds.  Johnson,  himself,  went 
and  told  Dick  that  he  was  buying  that  bull,  and  for  him  to 
keep  away.  He  bought  the  bull  and  then  turned  around 
and  sold  him  to  Dick  for  $1  a  hundred  more  than  he  paid, 
making  the  entry  on  his  books  just  as  the  transaction  oc- 
curred, showing  that  one-half  of  the  profit  went  to  Jim 
Dick.  A  few  days  later  they  had  a  trial  in  Johnson 's  office, 
with  the  other  commission  men  present  who  had  been  com- 
plaining about  the  corruption.  John  M.  Shaw  called  in 
Dick  and  when  Johnson  threw  the  books  down  on  Dick, 
Dick  had  to  admit  the  corruption.  Then  John  said :  * '  Dick, 
why  did  you  do  this  ? "  In  a  few  days  they  let  Dick  out  of 
the  yards  and  they  all  promised  not  to  let  the  circumstance 
get  to  the  public.  A  number  of  other  men,  bookkeepers  and 
commission  men,  had  been  whitewashed  in  the  same  way 
by  the  Kingans.  I  understood  that  Dick  went  to  Kansas 
City  and  did  business  with  the  Keid  Brothers,  who  were 
really  the  Kingans.  These  are  the  Reids  who  were  indicted 
by  the  grand  jury  for  irregularities  in  the  yard  and  for 
shipping  out  overloaded  cars,  and  ran  away  to  Europe  and 
stayed  there  two  years.  This  is  a  matter  of  court  record 
and  newspaper  record  at  the  time.  These  are  the  chief  con- 
spirators who  helped  to  put  me  out  of  business.  This  is  the 
young  set  who  do  not  do  business  as  their  fathers  did.  They 
have  all  got  their  four-in-hands  and  automobiles,  while  I 
have  to  work. 

Once  Dick  Serf  had  been  working  for  the  yards.    Every- 


With  the  Beef  Trust  163 

body  knew  Dick.  There  was  so  much  talk  of  corruption 
going  on  in  the  wards  the  city  sent  some  detectives  out 
there.  They  caught  him  stealing  three  big  hogs  and  haul- 
ing them  out  in  the  night.  The  detectives  had  Dick  ar- 
rested. When  Rauh  heard  of  the  arrest  he  told  the  detec- 
tives to  bring  him  to  the  Grand  Hotel  and  not  to  put  him 
in  jail,  saying,  "I  will  come  around  and  see  him."  They 
took  him  to  the  Grand  Hotel.  Dick  and  Rauh  went  into  con- 
sultation. Dick  related  all  of  this  to  me  afterwards.  Rauh 
said :  ' '  Dick,  why  did  you  steal  those  hogs  ? ' '  Dick  says  : 
"Why,  I  been  a-stealing  ten  to  twenty  hogs  for  you  every 
day,  almost,  during  the  twenty  years  I  have  been  working 
for  the  yard  company,  and  I  thought  it  wouldn  't  hurt  for 
me  to  take  three  for  myself."  Rauh  says:  *'Hush,  hush, 
don 't  say  anything.  You  have  got  to  go ;  you  cannot  keep 
at  it  any  longer."  I  think  I  can  substantiate  the  above. 
They  would  often  cut  the  big  ones  out  of  my  large  droves 
and  put  the  bi^  ones  in  their  own  places. 

Now  T  want  to  deal  with  the  real  actor,  the  boss  actor, 
whose  name  was  T.  Smith  Graves.  Some  twenty-six  or 
twenty-eight  years  ago  T.  Smith  Graves  was  attending  col- 
lege at  Greencastle,  Indiana.  He  came  from  a  big  farm  in 
Kentucky.  He  married  the  daughter  of  Michael  Sells,  who 
ran  a  big  commission  house.  At  that  time  they  paid  two 
and  three  cents  for  old  hogs  and  cripples.  Graves  com- 
menced buying  these  cripples  and  speculated  on  them.  He 
was  accused  of  stealing  two  hogs  and  he  came  to  me  and 
wanted  to  hand  me  $2,  and  wanted  me  to  let  him  have  the 
cripples  for  $5.00  less  than  the  cripples  were  worth. 
Finally  he  was  caught  dead  to  rights,  and  they  were  going 
to  have  him  arrested,  but  he  ran  away  to  Kentucky,  and  took 


164  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

his  wife  with  him,  also  two  children.  His  father-in-law  told 
me  afterwards  that  he  went  down  there  to  see  him  and  he 
found  him  and  his  daughter  living  in  a  nigger  shanty  on  his 
fathers  farm.  He  said  his  daughter  wanted  to  come  home, 
and  he  asked  me  if  I  would  not  let  Graves  come  back.  I 
told  him  to  let  him  come  and  he  fixed  it  up  with  the  others. 
Then  he  got  along  all  right ;  he  went  to  work,  and  finally 
he  went  into  the  firm  with  Sells  and  got  to  be  the  whole 
thing.    They  were  making  $20,000  to  $30,000  a  year. 

After  they  put  me  out  of  the  yards  I  brought  a  suit  for 
$200,000  damage  against  the  stock  company  and  the  Com- 
bine, also  including  the  Indiana  National  Bank  and  the  Ma- 
lott  Bank,  for  conspiracy.  They  had  all  the  lawyers  they 
could  get,  some  ten  in  number,  headed  by  W.  H.  H.  Miller 
and  Morris  &  Newberger,  a  Jew  firm.  The  case  was  taken 
to  Lebanon,  where  they  had  a  judge  with  a  glass  eye  and  a 
wig.  I  was  a  little  suspicious  of  the  wig,  and  I  told  my  at- 
torneys that  we  had  better  have  a  jury,  but  they  advised  me 
to  try  the  case  before  the  judge.  John  W.  Kern  was  my 
chief  attorney.  The  judge  ruled  with  me  for  several  days, 
but  I  learned  that  the  Jew  lawyers  had  taken  the  judge  on 
a  twenty-mile  automobile  ride  and  to  a  supper  at  Frank- 
fort after  night.  When  I  found  that  out  I  told  Kern  that  I 
felt  like  I  wanted  to  dismiss  the  case.  This  T.  Smith 
Graves  did  not  go  on  the  witness  stand — no  one  went  on  the 
witness  stand  except  Rauh.  The  judge  in  handing  down  his 
decision  said  he  did  not  see  how  the  bank  could  be  a  con- 
spirator ;  could  not  see  where  Kingan,  my  competitors,  had 
not  a  right  to  do  so ;  that  the  commission  men  had  a  right 
to  organize  and  resolve  not  to  do  any  more  business  with  me. 
He  said  it  seemed  that  Graves  had  been  robbing  me,  but  it 


With  the  Beef  Trust  165 

also  seemed  that  he  had  settled  with  me  every  time  I  caught 
him. 

It  was  a  cuckoo  of  an  explanation  for  the  defendants. 
I  found  out  at  the  time  that  Rauh  and  the  judge  had  been 
together,  that  Rauh  was  a  friend  of  the  judge  while  he  was 
Speaker  of  the  Indiana  House  some  years  before.  The 
Stock  Yards  Company  always  knew  how  to  handle  the 
Speakers  of  the  Indiana  Legislature.  They  are  the  best 
lobbyists  there  are.  They  always  get  things  in  hand  early 
and  look  over  the  committees.  The  Speaker  of  course  makes 
the  committees,  and  they  find  their  men  long  before.  No 
doubt  this  applies  to  every  State  where  there  is  a  stock  yard. 
Enough  of  this. 

We  are  told  in  the  Bible  that  the  innocent  shall  suffer 
for  the  guilty  and  you  will  find  this  illustrated  almost  every 
day  in  the  lives  of  some  of  those  we  know.  I  have  referred 
in  the  preceding  pages  to  Graves,  who  was  one  of  the  chief 
conspirators  against  me.  His  wife  was  a  grand,  noble  and 
good  woman,  and  was  burned  to  death  in  her  own  home.  I 
have  also  several  times  referred  to  the  Turk,  the  King  of 
Ireland,  and  his  wrong-doings  in  the  stock  yards  and  with 
those  who  were  competitors.  Three  of  his  grand-children 
were  burned  to  death  in  the  Iroquois  Theater  in  Chicago, 
which  broke  his  good  wife's  heart  and  she  died.  The  Jew 
lawyer  who  took  the  judge  out  riding  after  night  had  a 
partner  by  the  name  of  Morris.  Morris  lived  with  his 
brother-in-law,  who  was  also  a  Jew,  my  comrade  in  the  army 
and  one  of  the  best  men  I  ever  knew.  His  house  took  fire 
and  Morris  was  burned  to  death,  with  two  of  the  children  of 
his  brother-in-law.  Dr.  Haas.  The  father  never  recovered 
from  the  blow.     The  man  Malott,  president  of  the  Indiana 


t^6  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

National  Bank,  and  chief  conspirator  and  the  tool  of  the 
High  Priest  against  me,  has  a  son  Macy,  who,  according  to 
recent  newspaper  record,  was  locked  up  in  the  station  house 
for  whipping  his  wife.  He  is  really  a  much  better  man 
than  his  father.  Note  this  particularly:  When  McKee, 
Vice-President  of  Malott's  bank,  was  on  the  witness  stand 
for  about'two  hours  in  my  suit  before  the  judge  who  wore  a 
wig,  and  after  he  had  been  well  rehearsed  by  W.  H.  H. 
Miller  and  the  Jew  lawyer  who  were  the  leading  attorneys 
for  the  conspirators,  the  only  truth  he  swore  to  on  the  stand 
was  that  he  knew  my  name  was  R.  R.  Shiel,  and  that  I  had 
done  business  at  his  bank.  He  knew  nothing  about  the  pro- 
testing of  my  check;  nothing  about  refusing  me  money  at 
any  time ;  or  of  Malott  refusing  to  let  me  make  a  note  for 
$3,000  to  pay  any  overcheck  that  I  might  have;  nothing 
about  Malott's  refusing  to  take  a  note  endorsed  by  Fitz- 
gerald, who  is  worth  a  million,  and  Bishop  Chatard.  When 
Malott  was  on  the  stand  he  admitted  all  these  things.  My 
attorney,  John  W.  Kern,  got  him  tangled.  Ed  Porter, 
Secretary  of  the  bank,  when  Malott  got  tangled,  slipped  out 
the  back  way. 

EIGHTH ARMOUR   &   COMPANY. 

As  to  Armour  &  Company,  I  knew  old  Phil  well,  having 
met  him,  I  think,  about  '68,  not  later  than  '69,  in  Chicago, 
on  the  Board  of  Trade,  and  knew  him'  as  long  as  I  went  to 
Chicago.  Phil  was  really  a  very  fair  dealer.  He  had  in  his 
employ  when  I  first  knew  him,  a  number  of  Cudahys. 
]\Iike  and  Patrick  I  never  knew  personally,  as  they  did  not 
come  on  the  Board  of  Trade  at  that  time,  but  I  did  know 
John.     He  conducted  and  maintained  a  big  house  well  until 


With  the  Beef  Teust  167 

the  other  fellows  got  to  doing  everything  wrong,  and  he  had 
to  follow  suit.  After  his  death  they  got  to  playing  like  the 
other  people.  They  got  to  making  the  same  kind  of  stuif 
that  Nelse  and  the  Parson  made,  and,  as  I  understand  it, 
even  got  to  canning  chicken.  I  never  knew  Ogden;  they 
say  he  is  a  very  clever  fellow,  trying  to  keep  the  money  his 
father  left  him.     Well,  enough  of  this. 

NINTH — CUDAHY  &   COMPANY. 

They  are  known  as  cuckoos,  John,  especially.  John  is 
really  the  only  one  I  know,  and  I  don 't  know  him  well.  He 
is  the  one  that  stays  in  Chicago  and  does  the  manipulating, 
or  really  what  E.  C.  Swift  does  for  the  Swift  people.  They 
bought  out  some  years  ago,  around  '80,  as  I  recall  it,  the 
Plankington  Packing  House  of  Milwaukee,  Wis.,  which  was 
a  large  packing  house.  They  prospered  fast ;  they  were  three 
very  industrious  Irishmen.  Some  years  ago  they  bought  a 
house  that  was  known  as  the  Hughes,  Taggart  &  Co.,  at 
Louisville,  Ky.,  and  changed  it  to  the  Louisville  Packing  Co. 
Cudahy  bought  this  house  and  I  bought  hogs  for  them, 
just  the  same  as  I  had  been  buying  for  Plughes,  Taggart 
&  Co.  But  when  the  fight  came,  Cudahy  said  that  he 
would  not  pay  $6  commission,  and  wanted  to  pay  only  $3. 
I  told  them  I  had  only  one  commission,  and  then  he  joined 
in  with  the  others  and  chopped  my  head  off.  While  I  was 
buying  for  Squire,  and  buying  especially  from  all  the  good 
and  best  farmers,  something  like  one  hundred  to  one  thou- 
sand head  from  a  farm,  Cudahy  sent  his  man  Taylor — in 
fact,  sent  three  men— into  Indiana  and  tried  to  knock  me 
out  of  buying  the  Morgans  and  the  Scotts.  who  had  two  or 
three  thousand  hogs,  and  even  went  right  into  Indiana, 


168  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

north  of  Indianapolis,  a  thing  unknown  in  the  trade  at 
Frankfort,  and  put  Taylor  up  there,  as  I  had  a  big  terri- 
tory. They  tried  to  crowd  me  in  buying  the  hogs.  Taylor 
is  still  living.  A  few  years  ago  I  went  to  Chicago  and  had  a 
conference  with  John,  and  I  asked  him  why  in  the  name  of 
sense  he  didn't  keep  off  of  me  there.  He  said  he  wanted 
to  buy  good  ones  and  that  I  was  buying  all  the  good  ones. 
I  told  him  that  I  would  buy  some  of  these  good  ones  and 
send  them  down  to  him  if  he  would  pay  me  the  commission. 
He  said  they  did  not  pay  a  commission ;  that  they  had  their 
own  men.  I  suppose  they  have  a  right  to  buy  there.  They 
are  right  in  the  deal  and  doing  the  bidding  of  the  Trusts. 
Well,  enough  of  this. 

TENTH — NATIONAL  PACKING  COMPANY. 

The  National  Packing  Company  is  a  very  far-reaching 
thing.  As  I  understand  it,  there  was  originally  a  house 
that  had  that  name  in  Chicago,  and  they  bought  it.  This 
house  was  to  be  used  for  a  killer  off  of  smaller  houses,  and 
they  would  go  into  a  small  town  and  give  provisions  away 
while  they  were  doing  the  killing.  They  have  killed  off 
practically  all  of  the  good-sized  houses  in  the  United  States, 
with  the  exception  of  three  or  four.  They  were  never  able 
to  do  anything  with  the  Cleveland  Provision  Co.,  Cleveland, 
Ohio.  It  was  an  old  house  and  had  a  high  grade  established 
trade  in  Europe,  and  were  very  heavy  exporters  of  pork. 
Ben  Rose,  the  President,  and  practically  the  owner,  has  just 
recently  died,  leaving  no  heirs.  He  was  reported  to  be 
worth  five  to  eight  million  dollars.  He  gave  a  million  dol- 
lars to  the  Old  Ladies'  Home  at  Cleveland.  I  think  he  was 
a  Scotchman  and  was  ninety  years  old  when  he  died.     He 


With  the  Beef  Trust  169 

often  told  me  they  would  never  get  him,  that  his  house  gave 
honest  stuff  and  the  same  kind  of  lard,  etc.,  as  he  did  years 
ago ;  that  he  never  went  into  adulterating  food,  or  using  the 
short  process  of  curing  any  of  their  food,  or  stuff  any  of 
their  hams  with  chemicals  in  order  that  they  might  get  them 
off  in  four  or  five  days.  He  said  he  always  found  that 
when  he  sold  a  customer  a  good  ham  that  they  always  came 
back  for  others.  He  was  a  very  fair  man.  He  had  con- 
siderable to  do  with  the  passing  of  the  meat  inspection  bill. 

Once  when  he  was  in  Washington  I  took  him  and  his 
wife  to  the  White  House  and  introduced  them  to  President 
and  Mrs.  Harrison.  He  spent  an  hour  or  more  with  him, 
and  the  President  had  us  stay  for  dinner,  and  he  explained 
to  the  President  the  new  process  of  curing  meat  quickly 
and  ruining  the  whole  country. 

The  National  Packing  Company  was  organized  and  the 
stock  prorated  among  all  the  members  of  the  Trust,  so  if 
there  was  either  loss  or  profit  they  would  share  and  share 
alike.  But  the  same  man  who  made  the  price  in  Chicago 
for  the  different  cuts  for  all  the  Trusts,  named  the  price 
also  for  the  National  Packing  Company.  When  the  Trust 
made  up  its  mind  to  kill  off  a  small  house  anywhere,  the  Na- 
tional Packing  Company  was  the  club  used,  and  would  send 
its  meats  into  the  place  and  almost  give  it  away  until  the 
small  house  succumbed. 

CINCINNATI    AND    LOUISVILLE    PACKERS. 

Note  the  following  names  of  men  I  commenced  doing 
business  with  in  1865  and  1866,  who  were  the  packers  at 
that  time  in  Cincinnati  and  Louisville.  I  dealt  only  with 
the  large  packers. 


170  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

In  Cincinnati:  The  strongest  man  at  that  time  and 
leaving  one  of  the  richest  estates  in  Cincinnati,  whom  the 
beef  trust  was  unable  to  break,  was  Joseph  Raw^son.  He 
was  doing  business  under  the  name  of  Joseph  Rawson  & 
Son.  He  was  known  by  those  in  the  trade  as  Old  Joe.  He 
left  his  business  to  his  sons,  who  have  conducted  it  since, 
only  in  a  smaller  way. 

The  second  was  Caldwell,  Loder  &  Co.  The  members 
of  this  firm  were  Rush  county,  Indiana,  men,  but  doing 
business  in  Cincinnati,  although  living  in  Rush  and  Fayette 
counties,  Indiana,  in  Watson's  district.  This  firm  was  one 
of  the  best  known  firms  that  ever  did  business  in  Cincinnati. 
I  never  had  better  friends  than  the  members  of  this  firm 
and  the  men  associated  with  them.  They  would  have  backed 
me  with  all  the  money  they  aould  get  at  every  turn  of  the 
road. 

The  third  was  J.  L.  Keck  &  Brother,  or  Si,  as  we  called 
him.  Si  was  much  younger  than  Joe,  Ike  or  Train,  as  we 
(failed  Caldwell  Train  and  Loder  Ike  and  Rawson  Joe,  as  I 
have  said.  Si  w-as  young  and  very  progressive.  He  would 
be  at  the  yards  by  daybreak  in  the  morning  doing  his  own 
buying.  Joe,  Train  and  Ike  very  rarely  went  to  the  yards. 
I  did  a  very  heavy  business  with  all  of  them,  but  sold  Si 
more  than  any  of  the  others  the  first  two  years.  I  remem- 
ber one  time  during  the  panic  of  '73,  when  nobody  could 
get  any  money  anywhere,  I  had  something  more  than  $25,- 
000  worth  of  hogs  and  shipped  them  in  one  train  to  Cin- 
cinnati. I  banked  at  that  time  with  Fletcher  and  Sharpe 
at  Indianapolis,  I  never  had  a  better  friend,  and  no  better 
man  ever  lived  or  died  than  Ingram  Fletcher.  I  had  bought 
most  of  the  hogs  in  Indiana  and  Illinois  on  time  until  I 


With  the  Beef  Trust  171 

could  get  back  with  the  money.  Ingram  asked  me  if  I 
could  not  get  the  currency  at  Cincinnati  and  bring  it  home. 
I  told  him  I  thought  I  could  get  it  of  Joe,  'frain,  Ike  or  Si. 
Si  showed  up  early  in  the  morning  after  the  hogs  reached 
Cincinnati  and  seemed  to  be  anxious  to  buy  them.  We 
could  not  at  first  agree  upon  a  price,  but  later  on  we  did. 
Si  was  to  give  me  the  currency,  as  I  wanted  it  to  pay  for 
the  hogs.  My  impression  is  there  were  more  than  2,000 
head  of  hogs.  He  said  he  would  get  the  money  if  he  had  to 
knock  a  man  down  for  it,  and  I  sold  him  the  hogs.  It  was 
some  time  in  the  afternoon  before  we  got  through  weighing 
the  hogs.  I  had  wanted  to  make  the  2  p.  m.  train  for  In- 
dianapolis, but  found  I  could  not  do  so  and  wired  Ingram 
I  would  be  in  Indianapolis  at  11  o'clock  that  night  with 
the  stuff,  and  for  him  to  meet  me  at  the  depot.  When  Si 
and  I  got  to  the  bank  it  was  closed,  but  he  had  sent  word 
that  he  had  to  have  the  money.  They  let  us  in  the  side 
door  about  4  p.  m.  and  the  bank  handed  out  the  money  in 
packages.  I  put  it  in  my  grip  and  hung  on  to  the  grip 
until  I  reached  Indianapolis.  Ingram  met  me  at  the  depot 
and  we  went  immediately  to  his  bank  and  placed  the  money 
in  the  vault.  I  regret  I  have  not  space  to  deal  more  at 
length  with  others  I  did  business  with  in  Cirjeinnati.  all  of 
whom  were  excellent  gentlemen  and  did  business  in  the  Mis- 
souri way. 

Louisville  :  I  think  I  was  fully  as  strong  if  not  stronger 
in  Louisville  as  in  Cincinnati.  Among  the  first  I  did  busi- 
ness with  there  in  1865  or  ^66  was  Hughes,  Gauzley  &  Co. 
Colonel  Gauzley.  of  the  firm,  was  on  General  Forest's  staff 
during  the  war.  He  was  as  much  as  ten  or  fifteen  years 
older  than  I.     The  firm  had  the  largest  house  in  Louisville 


172  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

at  that  time.  Gauzley  came  up  to  Indianapolis  to  see  me 
with  Col.  Horace  Scott,  at  that  time  superintendent  of  the 
J.,  M.  &  I.  Railroad.  Horace  wanted  the  hogs  to  go  over 
his  road  to  Louisville  and  Gauzley  wanted  them  for  his 
packing  house.  Horace  knew  me,  but  I  had  never  met 
Gauzley,  but  his  Kentucky  hospitality  soon  had  me  going 
down  the  pike.  He  wanted  me  to  give  him  all  my  hogs,  but 
of  course  I  had  to  take  care  of  Joe  and  Ike  and  the  other 
Cincinnati  boys.  I  did  finally  give  him  from  twenty-five  to 
thirty-five  cars  a  day. 

Some  two  years  after  this,  while  waiting  for  a  train  at 
his  country  residence  some  twelve  or  fourteen  miles  out  of 
Louisville,  he  was  accidentally  drawn  under  the  train  and 
killed.  I  do  not  believe  I  ever  lost  a  better  friend  or  felt 
as  sad.  After  his  death  the  firm  became  Hughes,  Taggart 
&  Co.  and  continued  under  that  name  until  they  were 
bought  out  by  Cudahy  when  he  took  in  Louisville  in  the 
division  of  territories.  This  house  has  been  able  to  with- 
stand the  beef  trust.  Note  the  names  of  others  I  did  busi- 
ness with  in  Louisville :  Fred  Leib  &  Sons.  The  beef  trust 
broke  him  and  broke  his  heart.  He  never  ordered  less  than 
2,500  head  at  a  time.  In  fact,  the  Louisville  people  seldom 
ever  ordered  less  than  1,500  head  at  a  time,  and  sometimes 
as  high  as  3,000.  During  the  packers'  strike  about  '87, 
when  there  were  no  packing  houses  operating  in  Chicago 
for  some  weeks,  I  went  to  Chicago  on  Mondays  and  took 
out  of  that  city  from  15,000  to  20,000  daily,  which  I  sent 
to  Louisville  and  Cincinnati.  In  addition  I  had  a  number 
of  country  people  sending  their  hogs  to  the  packers  there. 
I  also  sent  .large  shipments  of  hogs  from  Chicago  to  my 
Eastern  customers,  as  the  Chicago  market  was  at  that  time 


With  the  Beef  Trust  173 

lower  than  any  in  the  country.     This  was  before  any  meat 
inspection  law  was  passed  and  before  I  was  a  dead  one. 

I  ask  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  the  following,  which 
articles  appeared  in  recent  issues  of  the  New  York  papers : 

THE  MEEK  CONSUMER. 

To  the  Editor  of  The  Sun: 

Sir — All  editorial  paragraph  in  today's  Smi  says:  "It  is  al- 
most uncaiiiiy,  yet  it's  true.     The  consumer  will  not  rise." 

Wouldn't  it  be  even  more  remarkable  if  the  consumer  should 
rise,  for  as  it  stands  now  the  consumer  doesn't  know  any  good 
reason  for  rising,  and  not  knowing  any  he  maintains  his  average 
calm  horizontal  iwsition?  Since  the  tariff  talk  commenced  the 
editors  have  been  wondering  why  the  consumer  has  not  rebelled. 
Hasn't  it  occurred  to  the  etiitors  that  unquestionably  at  least  09% 
per  cent,  of  the  average  consumers  are  at  the  present  moment  as 
densely  ignorant  of  the  nature  and  effect  of  the  proi>osed  tariff 
schedules  as  tomorrow's  child?  The  editors  feel  that  they  under- 
stand the  tariff  question  somewhat  (as  their  jobs  require  at  least 
a  partial  knowledge  of  it),  and  as  the  average  person  believes  that 
the  rest  of  humanity  knows  something  about  the  things  with  which 
he  is  familiar,  the  editors  naturally  assume  that  the  consumer 
knows  something  about  the  tariff".  But  the  average  consumer 
knows  as  little  about  the  tariff  as  the  average  congressman  or 
senator. 

We  should  like  to  know  sornething  about  the  tariff',  but  we 
don't,  and  we  have  a  faint  idea  that  we  never  shall,  and  that  is 
about  all  there  is  to  it.  The  consumer  has  not  ^'been  shown"  (or 
if  he  has  he  is  too  dense  to  perceive  the  demonstration)  that  he 
will  be  affected  inimically  by  any  possible  change  in  the  tariff. 
If  it  can  be  bumped  into  his  consciousness  that  it  will  cost  him 
more  to  live  this  year  than  last  year,  then  every  one  over  seven 
will  immediately  assume  a  perpendicular  attitude. 

Adam  Laibd. 

Scranton,  Pa,,  April  22, 


174  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

beef  trust  accused. 

MAY  ENTER  SHOE  BUSINESS  IF  HIDES  TAX   IS  CONTINUED. 
From  the  New  York  Press. 

Vigorous  protest  against  a  duty  on  hides  was  made  Friday  by 
Charles  H.  Jones,  of  Boston,  in  speal^ing  on  "The  Boot  and  Shoe 
Industry  and  the  Tariff"  before  the  members  of  the  Academy  of 
Political  Science  in  the  Hotel  Astor.  The  speaker  asserted  that 
the  present  duty  of  15  per  cent,  is  aiding  the  beef  trust  gradually 
to  build  up  a  monopoly  of  the  tanning  industry  of  the  United 
States,  and  the  result  would  be  that  all  independent  tanners  will 
be  comi)elled  to  buy  hides  from  the  beef  trust  or  be  driven  out  of 
business.  The  only  remedy,  the  si)eaker  said,  is  to  permit  the  in- 
dependent tanners  to  have  the  entire  world  as  their  market. 

There  were  many  speakers  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
academy,  but  Jones  was  the  most  striking  because  of  his  charges 
against  the  beef  trust.  He  went  into  the  history  of  the  tanning 
business.  He  said  the  great  packing  houses  take  off  one-half  the 
hides  produced  in  this  country.  "They  simply  own  such  hides  as 
come  into  their  possession  in  their  business  of  supplying  the  people 
with  meat,"  he  said.  "Obviously,  neither  they  nor  the  farmers 
produce  or  own  one  single  hide  more  or  less  on  account  of  this 
or  any  other  tariff.  When  a  duty  was  levied  on  hides  the  packing 
houses  were  selling  their  hides  to  tanners  throughout  the  country 
and  were  naturally  one  of  the  chief  sources  of  supply  to  the  tan- 
ners. Then  the  markets  of  the  .world  were  oi^en  to  all  buyers  and 
the  world's  production  controlled  the  price.  The  duty,  however, 
increased  the  price  of  foreign  hides  15  per  cent,  and  enabled  the 
packers  to  realize  a  full  butcher's  profit  on  the  hides  and  at  the 
same  time  get  the  hide  for  about  15  per  cent,  less  than  any  tanner 
could  buy  it.  The  packing  houses  soon  realized  the  importance  of 
their  control  of  the  tanners'  raw  material  and  naturally  undertook 
to  secure  this  profit  as  well  as  their  own.  To  do  this  they  began 
to  learn  the  tanning  business. 

"To  make  their  control  complete,"  went  on  the  speaker,  "they 


With  the  Beef  Tbust  175 

have  during  the  past  few  years  bought  out  large  numbers  of  hide- 
buying  agencies  scattered  throughout  the  country,  and  now  collect 
thousands  of  hides  which  are  taken  off  by  local  butchers.  Thus 
they  have  so  restricted  the  sources  of  supply  that  the  independent 
owner  must  go  to  them  for  his  raw  material,  the  price  of  which 
they  control. 

"Under  these  circumstances,  if  this  duty  is  continued,  nothing 
can  prevent  the  ultimate  monopoly  of  the  leather  business  by  the 
beef  trust.  When  their  control  is  complete — and  it  will  take  only 
a  few  years  to  complete  it — nothing  can  prevent  their  making  all 
or  such  parts  of  the  shoes  needed  in  this  country  as  they  desire." 

CONDITIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

I  want  to  call  your  especial  attention  to  Mr.  Flagler, 
practically  the  owner  of  the  East  coast  of  Florida.  He 
owns  all  the  railroads,  all  the  telegraph  offices,  all  the  ex- 
press companies,  all  the  cars  and  all  the  best  hotels.  You 
might  say  it  was  a  fad  of  his  to  go  into  this  wilderness  and 
construct  all  these  roads  and  make  such  improvements.  He 
has  managed  his  investments  very  differently  from  J.  J. 
Hill. 

You  might  say  that  Florida  possesses  much,  especially 
in  South  Florida,  as  the  climate  is  as  good  or  better  than 
anywhere  I  have  been.  Also,  it  is  very  easy  to  get  out  of 
Florida  by  water,  much  harder  to  get  out  by  rail.  I  knew 
Mr.  Flagler  in  a  way  in  Cleveland  thirty-five  or  forty  years 
ago.  I  stopped  at  five  or  six  of  his  hotels  in  Florida,  in 
Miami,  Palm  Beach,  Daytona  and  St.  Augustine,  paying 
from  $8  to  $10  a  day.  They  were  all  managed  by  different 
people,  and  each  manager  operated  his  own  hotel,  and  the 
management  of  one  hotel  had  to  check  with  that  of  the 
others.     That  was  done  in  a  way  to  get  the  best  results.     I 


176  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

understand  the  hotel  business,  having  been  connected  with 
that  business  directly  or  indirectly  for  more  than  forty 
years.  I  have  been  stopping  at  the  best  hotels  for  years  in 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Washington  and  scores 
of  other  places.  I  never  ask  the  price  of  a  room,  but  tell 
them  I  want  a  good  room,  and  when  I  get  ready  to  go  I  al- 
Avays  go  and  pay  for  same.  I  have  lived  that  way  ever 
since  I  have  been  in  business.  Ten  dollars  a  day  is  the 
most  that  I  have  ever  paid  at  any  of  the  hotels  on  the  Ameri- 
can plan.  All  of  his  hotels  are  on  the  American  plan.  In 
'92  I  was  a  guest  for  something  like  ten  days  at  the  Ponce 
de  Leon,  in  Florida.  I  was  invited  there  when  Albert  J. 
Porter,  Minister  to  Italy,  was  traveling  with  me,  and  I  was 
looking  after  Harrison's  nomination.  There  was  a  large 
ball  there  for  the  Hermitage  Institution  at  Nashville,  Ten- 
nessee. I  had,  I  think,  the  same  room  this  time  as  I  had 
there  once  before.  They  charged  me  $10.  Flagler  married 
his  former  housekeeper,  and  I  am  told  that  she  is  now  in 
the  insane  hospital.  She  was  the  best  dressed  woman  at  the 
hotel.  She  was  his  second  wife.  I  missed  him  at  Palm 
Beach,  but  I  saw  his  residence,  and  it  is  said  that  it  cost  two 
or  three  millions  of  dollars.  The  stewards  and  managers  of 
his  hotels  told  me  that  he  checked  up  one  hotel  against  an- 
other, and  the  manager  that  got  the  best  results  got  the  most 
salary.  I  asked  them  where  they  got  all  of  their  meat. 
They  said  that  S.  &  S.  supplied  all  Flagler's  hotels.  Note 
what  I  have  said  elsewhere  about  the  kind  of  meat  that  S. 
&  S.  furnished,  especially  in  the  pork  line.  This  is  the  kind 
that  you  find  in  all  of  Flagler's  hotels.  The  oranges  and 
the  grape  fruit  that  Flagler  used  were  mostly  what  are 
called  drops,  that  is  the  fruit  that  drops  off  the  trees  and 


With  the  Beef  Trust  177 

can  be  bought  for  more  than  a  half  less  than  that  which  is 
selected  and  pulled  by  hand  off  the  trees.  I  am  told  that 
Flagler  never  had  the  best  oranges  or  grape  fruit  on  his 
tables,  many  of  them  having  fallen  four  or  five  days  be- 
fore. A  gentleman  who  owns  the  largest  and  best  fruit 
farm  I  saw  while  in  Florida  told  me  that  he  had  twenty 
colored  people  putting  up  his  fruit,  and  told  me  that  Flag- 
ler would  take  many  of  the  drops  off  of  his  hands. 

I  asked  Mr.  Ingram,  who  was  Flagler's  third  vice-presi- 
dent, whom  I  met  at  times,  about  building  up  the  cattle  on 
the  lines  of  the  Florida  roads,  and  he  said  that  they  prin- 
cipally raised  bulls  down  there  to  fight  in  Cuba.  I  told  him 
that  I  would  give  him  one  hundred  bulls,  sufficient  to  change 
the  whole  breed  of  his  cattle,  if  he  would  pay  the  freight  on 
them  and  sterilize  all  the  other  bulls  within  ten  miles  of  his 
road,  and  in  a  few  years  he  would  have  a  fine  grade  of  cat- 
tle. He  said  that  he  would  see  me  about  it,  but  that  he  did 
not  think  it  could  be  done.  I  told  him  if  he  did  that  he 
could  get  good  meat  right  at  home,  and  Flagler  would  not 
have  to  have  his  stuff  shipped  from  the  North.  I  found 
that  they  were  furnishing  guests  at  his  hotels  nothing  but 
cows,  and  Jersey  beef,  and  in  the  pork  line  nothing  but  old 
stags  and  sows.  He  told  me  that  he  knew  nothing  about 
that,  as  each  manager  operated  his  hotel  so  he  could  show 
the  best  results,  and  all  meat  and  egg  supplies  were  bought 
from  S.  &  S.,  which  was  contracted  for  by  Flagler.  Of 
course  every  business  man  buys  so  he  can  show  good  re- 
sults, but  I  told  him  that  it  was  not  right  to  buy  meats  that 
were  actually  poisonous  to  people.  There  is  a  vast  differ- 
ence between  meats.  I  told  him  that  they  ought  to  feed 
nothing  but  high  grade  meats.     He  said,  ' '  Well,  fish  is  high 

[12] 


178  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

grade  meat,  and  we  feed  fish  all  the  year  round.  The  cost 
of  fish  is  the  same  as  it  was  thirty  years  ago  there  and  all 
the  way  along  the  coast  to  Boston.  Fish  sell  all  along  the 
coast  for  from  ten  to  twelve  cents  per  pound,  and  the  best 
kind.  Fish  and  the  like  are  higher  in  the  West  than  in  the 
East.  They  will  charge  three  times  as  much  for  beef  all 
along  the  coast  as  they  do  for  fish,  and  that  of  a  very  poor 
quality. 

Note  particularly  here  what  the  Trust  is  doing.  I 
stopped  at  Helena,  Arkansas,  as  I  was  going  down.  I  in- 
spected the  city.  I  wanted  to  find  out  whether  it  would  be 
a  good  investment  to  put  in  street  cars.  This  was  a  town  of 
fifteen  to  twenty  thousand  people,  and  no  cars.  A  friend  of 
mine  wanted  to  get  the  charter.  I  wrote  him  to  go  there 
and  get  the  charter,  which  he  did;  now  they  are  building 
the  street  railway.  I  stopped  there  also  when  I  went  back. 
I  arranged  with  him  to  put  in  stock  yards  and  a  packing 
house  in  or  near  the  town.  The  parties  arranged  to  give 
me  one  hundred  acres  of  land  and  I  had  all  the  deeds  and 
everything  ready,  but  the  Trust  got  onto  it  in  some  way  and 
then  the  parties  would  not  let  me  have  the  land  unless  I 
would  go  away  out  in  the  country,  saying  that  stock  yards 
and  a  packing  house  would  ruin  any  city;  consequently  I 
did  not  get  the  land. 

As  I  was  returning  from  Hot  Springs,  Ark.,  I  stopped 
four  days  at 'Nashville,  Tenn.,  and  got  in  with  some  friends 
there.  I  had  it  in  my  mind  to  promote  and  build  a  stock 
yard  there,  as  I  knew  I  was  in  the  best  part  of  the  South, 
and  could  get  a  large  supply  of  live  stock  in  that  section, 
and  close  enough  to  go  in  the  Northwest,  knowing  if  I  was 
short  in  the  Northwest  I  could  get  there  with  my  stock  in 


With  the  Beef  Trust  179 

twenty-four  hours.  We  went  over  it  all  very  carefully,  and 
I  talked  it  over  with  some  of  the  moneyed  men  there,  and 
the  thing  was  arranged  to  be  put  in  operation.  Note 
what  appeared  in  the  Nashville  American  and  which 
will  explain  itself.  Also  note  what  other  papers  said 
about  the  two  and  a  half  million  dollars  for  the  pur- 
pose of  organizing  and  constructing  the  stock  yards,  a  cold 
storage  and  fertilizer  plant  in  Nashville.  This  was  five  or 
six  days  afterwards.  Of  course  the  Cudahys  and  their 
associates,  who  had  had  this  territory  in  the  South,  take 
after  them,  got  after  me  and  took  out  a  charter  for  $2,- 
600,000.  They  followed  me  like  a  serpent  everywhere. 
Years  ago  I  went  in  with  Charles  North  &  Co.,  to  construct 
stock  yards  in  Sioux  City,  Iowa,  and  the  Trust  went  in  there 
after  they  bought  North  out. 

Niles  &  Brothers,  about  twenty-two  or  three  years  ago, 
and  some  other  parties,  constructed  yards  at  Yarmouth, 
Texas,  and  I  said  to  them  that  it  would  be  a  dead  sure 
winner.  Niles  wrote  to  me,  asking  me  if  I  could  not  get 
him  a  manager  to  come  out  there  and  help  him  out.  I  was 
arranging  to  go  myself  and  I  told  them  they  could  get 
Mitchell,  who  was  at  that  time  superintendent  of  the  Kansas 
City  yards,  and  who  had  been  superintendent  of  the  Indian- 
apolis yards  until  Samuel  Rauh  was  elected  President.  J. 
W.  P.  Ijams  had  been  President  practically  all  the  time  un- 
til they  brought  on  the  fight  against  me  and  Mitchell,  super- 
intendent. They  protected  me  and  saw  I  got  the  strictly 
higher  right  and  the  ones  I  bought  loaded,  without  stealing. 
As  soon  as  Ijams  quit  they  got  rid  of  Mitchell  and  he  went 
to  the  Kansas  City  yards.  Then  the  Trust  went  to  Yar- 
mouth and  Niles  made  a  deal  with  them  whereby  he  was  to 


180  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

have  a  big  interest.  This  is  the  same  Niles  who  is  president 
of  the  Squire  house  in  Boston,  and  the  Niles,  Boston. 

Another  damnable  thing  of  the  Trust  is  an  agreement 
whereby  nothing  that  was  cured  in  the  old-fashioned  way 
must  be  sent  South.  They  must  keep  a  dumping  place  to 
dump  only  the  process-cured  meats  in  the  South.  Twenty- 
five  years  ago  there  was  only  about  40  per  cent,  of  the  hogs 
slaughtered  that  could  be  marketed  in  less  than  forty  days, 
excepting  the  lard,  the  fresh  livers  and  the  feet.  The  bacon, 
hams  and  the  shoulders,  when  they  were  not  sold  fresh, 
would  take  at  least  fifty  or  sixty  days  to  be  fully  cured. 
Squire,  North,  the  Boston  Packing  House  or  any  of  the  Cin- 
cinnati or  Louisville  houses  never  marketed  anything  until 
it  was  thoroughly  cured.  Now  the  Trusts  have  a  process  of 
chemicals  by  which  they  can  cure  hams,  shoulders  or  in  fact 
any  part  of  the  hog  in  eight  to  ten  days,  and  they  can  sell 
all  of  their  products  inside  of  ten  days.  This  was  done  to 
save  interest  on  the  money  invested  and  to  turn  their  money 
often ;   also  to  save  storage  and  insurance  in  carrying  them. 

You  understand  they  are  putting  nothing  but  bull  meat 
in  the  large  hotels.  North  and  South,  which  are  practically 
incorporated  and  have  an  interest  in  the  Beef  Trust. 

The  bulls  are  not  fed  as  they  were  fifteen  years  ago,  but 
are  fed  on  cotton  seed  hulls,  cooked  with  slop.  Years  ago 
they  had  hay  for  roughness,  now  they  have  cotton  seed  hulls. 
The  cotton  seed  permeates  the  beef.  They  pass  the  orders 
down  the  line  to  sell  the  bulls.  They  go  on  slop  in  July  and 
August,  and  they  commence  taking  off  in  March,  April  and 
May,  and  by  the  middle  of  June  they  have  got  to  have  them 
all  off,  for  the  still  houses  close  down  then.  They  are  fat, 
but  they  are  bull  meat  just  the  same,  with  a  cotton  see4 


With  the  Beef  Trust  181 

flavor.  In  every  large  hotel  I  stopped  at  in  the  South  I 
found  this  condition  since  the  first  of  March.  I  recently 
took  a  trip  West,  through  Cincinnati,  Indiana,  St.  Louis, 
Kansas  City,  Chicago  and  New  York,  and  the  bull  meat  ap- 
peared in  all  of  the  best  hotels  I  stopped  at,  and  also  on  the 
dining  cars.  While  in  the  South  during  the  winter  I  found 
the  Jersey  cow  meat  largely  predominated.  At  any  rate 
there  was  nothing  but  cow  meat  put  on  any  of  Flagler's 
tables.  Part  was  Jersey  and  part  was  not,  and  I  found 
the  same  conditions  in  every  other  hotel  with -the  exception 
of  Gulfport,  Miss.,  and  Little  Rock,  Arkansas.  The  best 
meal  I  had  while  traveling  in  the  South  was  in  East  Ten- 
nesee  in  the  mountains  on  the  Tennessee  River,  where  we 
stopped  twenty  minutes  for  dinner.  The  lady  had  all  Ten- 
nessee products,  evidently — the  eggs,  the  bacon,  the  pork, 
etc.  I  think  the  meal  was  75  cents,  and  at  all  the  other 
places  I  had  been  paying  from  $1  to  $1.50.  You  under- 
stand I  traveled  in  the  South  all  the  time  in  the  daytime. 
This  will  show  you  that  the  conditions  of  live  stock  in  the 
South  must  be  changed  and  improved  as  was  done  in  Den- 
mark. 

To  the  Southern  Senators  and  members  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  I  want  to  serve  notice  on  you  that  the 
same  applies  to  you  this  coming  election  as  it  did  to  Wads- 
worth.  Your  country  is  an  agricultural  country,  and  a 
great  deal  depends  upon  your  actions  in  the  Senate  and  the 
House,  as  to  how  you  all  should  join  hands  and  help  build 
up  the  South  as  the  Northwest  has  been  built  up.  In  the 
West  there  were  millions  of  acres  that  were  barren  that  are 
now  fertile,  the  same  as  your  lands  prior  to  the  war,  but 
have  been  abandoned  since.     Your  lands  ran  be  made  fertile 


182  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

if  you  will  permit  the  people  to  go  into  your  State  without 
interruption,  and  teach  your  people  "Early  to  bed  and 
early  to  rise." 

It  has  been  your  purpose  to  keep  your  colored  people  in 
slavery,  so  that  you  could  hold  them  in  subjugation,  but  all 
that  is  past  and  there  are  new  generations  coming  on.  The 
war  is  all  over  and  there  is  no  use  bringing  that  up.  You 
vote  for  a  revenue  bill  that  won 't  protect  the  poorer  people 
in  a  way  of  furnishing  raw  material  for  the  factories  and 
other  industries  in  a  small  way.  You  protect  your  wild 
timber  lands  in  order  that  you  may  be  able  to  sell  a  few 
more  trees  off  the  land,  lands  that  nothing  else  will  grow  on, 
and  poor  trees  at  that.  T  noticed  while  traveling  in  the 
South  a  great  many  turpentine  camps  and  timber  in  the 
sandy  parts  of  Florida,  Georgia.  Alabama,  Mississippi. 
Louisiana  and  Arkansas — practically  would  travel  half  a 
day  and  see  nothing  else.  Can  you  afford  to  vote  for  a  big 
tariff  on  lumber  to  satisfy  the  already  rich  lumber  dealer 
and  make  the  poor  man  pay  it  when  they  want  to  build  a 
house  or  a  barn  on  a  farm  in  the  South,  or  even  in  the  North 
or  Northwest?  Can  you  afford  to  vote  for  tax  on  refined 
sugar  in  the  interest  of  the  Sugar  Trust  because  you  have  a 
few  districts  in  your  section  that  are  able  to  produce  sugar, 
against  the  millions  that  have  to  consume  sugar?  I  serve 
notice  on  you  that  you  will  get  the  same  dose  that  Wads- 
worth  got,  and  in  the  very  next  election.  There  is  no  Doli- 
tics  with  the  plain,  common  people,  especially  among  the 
farmers.  In  my  four  months,  traveling  in  the  South  I 
found  that  part  of  the  country  was  riper  for  the  move  than 
even  the  West,  that  is  on  the  tariff  bill.  I  fully  realize  that 
many  of  you  have  large  interests  in  the  South,  that  you  are 


With  the  Beef  Trust  183 

rich  and  have  plenty,  and  that  the  poorer  people  have  to 
help  furnish  a  revenue  to  support  your  government  and  to 
help  pay  your  taxes. 

Now  there  has  been  a  great  deal  said  in  the  South  about 
the  colored  race.  The  old  saying  is,  "A  nigger  will  steal, 
and  a  white  man  is  uncertain."  I  don't  agree  with  that. 
Take,  for  instance,  the  bank's  trusty  man  is  mostly  a  negro ; 
the  man  who  has  charge  of  the  keys  in  the  big  hotels  is  often 
a  colored  man,  both  North  and  South.  The  old  slave 
owners  had  trusty  colored  men;  in  fact  there  are  trusted 
colored  men  in  nearly  all  business  interests.  The  old  col- 
ored woman  that  nursed  the  white  children,  she  educated 
them  to  be  honest,  as  well  as  educated  her  own  children  to  be 
honest.  It  is  true  that  there  is  a  good  per  cent,  of  the  col- 
ored people  that  do  steal,  but  not  more  so  than  the  Dago,  the 
Irish,  Jews  and  others.  It  has  not  been  over  a  year  since 
they  wanted  to  disfranchise  the  colored  men  in  the  South, 
when  there  are  some  colored  men  more  able  to  vote  than  lots 
of  white  ones.  These  are  the  Democrats.  I  have  got  no 
politics  myself  and  I  don't  want  to  have  any — I  just  want 
to  help  the  people. 

PROMINENT  MEN  I  HAVE  KNOWN. 

Now  I  want  to  take  up  some  great  men  in  the  light  in 
which  I  see  them ;  in  fact,  in  the  light  in  which  the  public 
sees  them,  and  not  as  they  see  themselves.  There  are  a 
great  many  handsome  men  that  live  on  their  looks,  and 
think  as  they  are  walking  down  the  street  or  riding  in  auto- 
mobiles that  everybody  is  looking  at  them — in  fact  that  is 
generally  the  case,  but  what  are  most  of  the  people  thinking 
about  them? 


184  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

Now,  first  I  want  to  deal  with  the  men  I  have  come  in 
contact  with  in  the  last  forty  years,  so  I  will  take  up  what 
is  a  most  important  class,  the  business  man.  One  of  the 
greatest  men  that  I  have  known  in  the  past  thirty  years  in 
building  up  the  Northwest  is  Archbishop  Ireland,  moving 
forward  and  preaching  Christ  and  Him  crucified. 

The  second  is  James  J.  Hill,  building  a  railroad  into  the 
unknown  country.  It  was  a  very  gigantic  undertaking  to 
construct  the  Northern  Pacific.  After  he  got  it  constructed 
he  saw  the  wild  animals,  the  wild  horses,  the  wild  cattle, 
the  wild  sheep,  the  wild  hogs  and  the  wild  men.  So  some 
fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago  he  commenced  buying  and  im- 
porting on  the  main  lines  West  in  Minnesota,  the  Dakotas, 
Montana  and  Washington,  something  like  eight  hundred 
bulls,  all  of  which  were  thoroughbred  Herefords,  Shorthorns 
and  Polled  Angus  of  the  meat  kind.  He  bought  no  Jerseys. 
Those  are  practically  the  only  meat  producers.  He  gave 
them  to  the  farmers  and  compelled  them  to  use  them  for 
stock  breeding.  He  bought  something  like  5,000  male  thor- 
oughbred hogs,  and  something  like  six  or  eight  thousand 
thoroughbred  bucks,  all  of  which  were  imported  largely 
from  Canada,  as  they  raised  the  highest  grade  sheep  there. 
He  bought  something  like  six  to  eight  hundred  draft  horses 
and  gave  all  of  them  away,  stringing  them  out  on  the  lines 
of  his  roads.*  In  every  case  where  he  gave  away  this  im- 
ported stock  he  required  the  recipient  to  agree  to  sterilize 
all  the  male  stock  they  owned  and  in  less  than  two  years  he 
had  all  the  hogs  and  sheep  at  least  half-breeds  or  thorough- 
breds ;  in  less  than  five  years  he  had  all  the  cattle,  and  in 
less  than  eight  years  he  had  all  the  horses  half-breeds  or 


With  the  Beef  Trust  185 

thoroughbreds.  Now  no  country  in  the  world  can  excel  the 
section  along  his  line  of  roads,  in  its  high  grade  of  sheep, 
hogs,  cattle  and  horses.  In  my  mind  he  is  one  of  the  great- 
est benefactors  I  ever  knew,  along  with  John  P.  Squire,  Tim 
Eastman  and  Richard  We])ber,  an  account  of  whom  I  have 
given  in  the  previous  pages.  There  is  a  vast  difference  be- 
tween a  builder  up  and  a  tearer  down.  There  is  another 
Moses  that  I  think  of  at  this  point,  and  if  he  lives  he  will 
raise  other  sections  of  the  country  out  of  the  wilderness.  I 
have  reference  to  E.  H.  Harriman,  and  if  he  takes  up  on 
his  lines  and  duplicates  what  Hill  has  done,  as  I  think  he 
will,  it  will  be  a  big  money-maker  for  him.  It  will  take 
some  time  to  get  good  results  from  this  class  of  invest- 
ments, yet  when  the  good  results  come  they  will  continue  to 
be  money-makers.  He  has  the  foresight  to  see  it,  and  he 
will  prove  to  be  a  great  builder  up  of  the  South  along  the 
line  of  his-roads. 

There  is  a  vast  difference  between  the  way  Hill  and  the 
Pennsylvania  Company  operate  their  roads.  The  Penn- 
sylvania practically  operates  all  the  lines  it  controls  for  the 
sole  use  and  benefit  of  the  Pennsylvania,  and  no  one  else. 
Thirty-two  years  ago  when  we  established  our  stock  yards 
at  Indianapolis,  we  had  to  give  the  head  officers  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Company  $100,000  of  our  $500,000  worth  of 
stock.  In  the  agreement  with  the  Pennsylvania  Company 
they  were  to  abandon  two  stock  yards,  in  Indianapolis, 
which  were  very  good  ones,  and  one  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  one 
of  the  best  locations  for  a  stock  yard  in  the  country,  and  it 
would  have  been  one  of  the  best  for  the  farmers  of  Ohio 
and  a  part  of  Indiana,  giving  them  the  benefit  of  a  short 


186  Twenty  Years  in  Heli. 

haul  to  market.  I  understand  many  of  these  same  high  of- 
ficials are  yet  holding  their  stock  in  the  Indianapolis  yards. 
Of  course  the  ''High  Priest"  is  still  living,  and  it  is  my  im- 
pression he  thinks  he  will  live  always.  He  was  in  the 
deal  at  the  time,  as  he  was  stock  agent  for  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Road. 

I  regret  that  I  have  not  the  space  to  mention  in  this 
brief  hundreds  of  others.  None  come  up  to  Squire,  East- 
man and  Webber.  If  you  are  careful  in  reading  this  brief 
through  you  will  see  what  I  have  to  say  about  each  one.  Do 
not  overlook  Pinnell  and  Lockridge.  I  must  also  mention 
William  Randolph  Hearst.  His  father  went  West  at  an 
early  day  and  struck  it  rich  in  the  gold  mines,  and  was  sent 
to  the  United  States  Senate  by  California.  In  his  day  he 
was  a  great  power  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  William  has  got 
his  father  skinned  to  a  frazzle.  I  kncAV  the  old  Senator  and 
I  know  the  young  journalist.  He  is  a  smarter  m^an  than  his 
father  was.  That  is  an  exception  to  the  general  rule. 
There  are  not  many  smarter  men  in  the  country.  He  em- 
ploys the  very  best  talent  and  pays  the  highest  salaries  on 
his  papers.  He  puts  a  good  deal  of  fiction  in  his  papers, 
which  I  do  not  read,  but  the  people  want  it.  He  also  prints 
a  great  deal  of  solid  facts,  which  I  do  read.  You  can  not 
lose  him.  There  is  another  man  you  can  not  lose,  that  is 
Thomas  Hisgen,  late  the  candidate  of  the  Independent 
party  for  President.  He  is  a  very  able  man.  He  came  from 
Indiana.  Tom  Lawson  is  another  one  of  those  men  you  can 
not  lose.  I  do  not  know  him  personally,  but  I  have  read 
with  interest  what  he  has  written  about  meats  and  the  Beef 
Trust.  He  is  a  very  well-informed  man  on  these  subjects, 
for  one  who  never  dealt  in  meat. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  187 

I  also  want  to  say  there  are  great  men  in  labor  organiza- 
tions, and  in  naming  the  progressive  men,  no  man  stands 
higher  on  the  list  than  John  Mitchell.  There  is  no  greater 
)3enefactor  to  labor  or  the  country  than  John  Mitchell,  and 
he  will  have  a  crown  when  he  dies. 

There  is  a  vast  difference  between  Gompers  and  Mitchell. 
There  is  a  Jew  and  an  Irishman  in  this.  I  understand  that 
Gompers  is  a  Jew.  However,  one  is  a  builder  up  and  the 
other  a  tearer  down. 

RICHARD  WEBBER'S  SIXTIETH  BIRTHDAY. 


HE  ARRIVES  AT  THE  AGE  OF  THREE  SCORE  YEARS. 


DETAILS  OF  PROFIT  DISTRIBUTION  PLAN. 


On  the  21st  of  January  Mr.  Richard  Webber  arrived  at 
the  sixtieth  milestone  in  his  life's  journey. 

He  carries  his  sixty  years  lightly,  and  to  a  stranger  looks 
more  like  forty. 

It  isn't  our  intention  to  write  a  biography  of  Mr.  Web- 
ber, but  we  would  like  to  say  a  few  words  appertaining  to 
the  success  Mr.  Webber  has  made. 

We  know  that  Mr.  Webber  became  a  master  butcher  in 
1873,  when  he  started  in  business  for  his  own  account  in 
partnership  with  Mr.  James  W.  Sears  at  2194  Third  avenue. 
j\Ir.  Webber  withdrew  from  this  partnership  in  187 G  and 
continued  business  at  2134  Third  avenue,  and  in  the  follow- 
ing year  removed  to  210  East  120th  street,  having  pur- 
chased at  a  receiver's  sale  a  business  that  had  been  previ- 
ouslv  conducted  there. 


188  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

He  took  a  partner,  a  Mr.  Warwick,  and  increased  the 
basiness  by  taking  the  shop  adjoining.  No.  212. 

In  the  early  part  of  1880  the  firm  Webber  &  Warwick 
was  dissolved  and  the  business  divided,  Mr.  Webber  taking 
212  East  120th  street. 

Mr.  Warwick  put  his  business  into  a  stock  company^ 
which  later  had  financial  difficulties.  Eventually  on  the  set- 
tlement of  the  affairs  of  the  Warwick  company  its  business 
was  acquired  by  Mr.  Webber,  who  then,  about  the  beginning 
of  1882,  combined  it  with  his  individual  business.  The 
Harlem  packing  house  was  originally  the  property  of  Mr. 
Warwick,  who  started  in  1873. 

We  make  no  mention  here  of  many  incidents  of  Mr. 
Webber  outside  of  his  strictly  business  life,  as  we  desire 
to  reserve  the  recording  of  them  until  we  are  able  to  give  a 
good,  full  biography,  which  we  feel  will  interest  every  mem- 
ber of  his  large  business  family,  and  besides,  it  would  be  a 
very  difficult  matter  to  write  all  one  would  like,  realizing 
as  we  do  his  extreme  modesty. 

We  have  secured  some  photos  of  our  subject  which  we 
feel  sure  will  be  of  interest  to  our  readers.  The  first  shows 
Mr.  Webber  when  he  was  about  eighteen  years  old,  and  is 
reproduced  from  a  daguerreotype.  The  next  two  show  him 
at  twenty-six  and  twenty-nine  years.  The  one  taken  in 
1884  or  '85  was  used  in  a  set  of  resolutions  which  were  en- 
grossed and  handsomely  framed  and  presented  to  Mr.  Web- 
ber by  one  hundred  and  ten  employes  in  1885.  The  photo 
taken  when  he  was  48  makes  him  look  older  than  he  appears 
today.  The  picture  depicting  Mr.  Webber  in  1904  shows 
him  no  different  than  now. 

Mr.  Webber  has  a  mode^  family — two  sons  and   one 


RICHARD    WEBBER. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  189 

daughter — and  one  grandson,  the  child  of  Mr.  Richard 
Webber,  Jr.  We  present  a  picture  of  Master  Richard  Web- 
ber 3d,  who  is  three  years  and  nine  months  old  and  who 
from  all  appearances  Avill  be  ' '  a  chip  of  the  old  block. ' ' 

The  Profit-Sharing  Plan — Everybody  a  Partner. 

By  means  of  signs  placed  about  the  establishment  on 
Monday,  the  28th  inst.,  Mr.  Webber  requested  the  presence 
of  all  his  employes  immediately  after  the  closing  of  the 
store,  explaining  that  he  desired  to  speak  upon  a  plan  to 
distribute  amongst  them  a  certain  percentage  of  the  profits 
of  his  business. 

The  five  hundred  and  odd  employes  gathered  in  the 
Third  avenue  store  after  business  Avas  over  for  the  day,  and 
then  Mr.  Webber  said:  ''I  called  you  together  this  even- 
ing with  the  object  of  saying  something  to  you,  but  as  my 
throat  is  not  right  I  have  deputized  my  son  Richard  to  ex- 
plain to  you  a  plan  which  I  hope  will  meet  with  your  ap- 
proval, as  it  does  with  mine. " 

After  the  applause  which  greeted  these  remarks  had 
died  away  Mr.  Richard  Webber,  Jr.,  addressed  the  assem- 
blage as  follows : 

Upon  the  card  which  accompanied  Mr.  Webber 's  gift  to 
you  a  short  time  ago  it  was  intimated  that  Mr.  Webber  had 
a  plan  of  distributing  among  his  employes  a  portion  of  the 
yearly  profits  instead  of  the  customary  week 's  salary. 

With  the  object  of  announcing  to  you  this  plan  this 
evening  Mr.  Webber  has  called  you  together. 

In  a  large  business  the  supreme  head  cannot  oversee 
everything.  Consequently  minor  details  are  not  carried 
out,  and  that  means  losses.     To  prevent  these  losses  it  needs 


190  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

the  co-operation  of  the  employes.  Now  the  question  is  how 
to  secure  that  co-operation.  The  co-operation  upon  the  part 
of  the  etnployes  means  that  they  should  take  some  interest, 
and  perhaps  the  best  way  to  secure  that  interest  is  to  give 
them  something  to  lose  or  gain.  No  one  has  as  much  in- 
terest in  a  business  as  in  one's  own. 

Now,  to  secure  your  interest  in  his  business,  Mr.  Web- 
ber is  going  to  make  his  business  your  own  personal  busi- 
ness ;  in  other  words,  he  is  going  to  take  you  into  partner- 
ship. It  is  his  intention  to  divide  20  per  cent,  of  the  net 
profits  among  his  employes.  This  will  take  the  place  of  the 
customary  semi-yearly  distribution  of  a  week's  salary. 

This  20  per  cent.,  taking  the  average  profits  of  the  last 
few  years,  will  materially  exceed  a  week 's  salary.  Some  of 
you  may  remember  in  a  like  distribution  a  number  of  years 
ago  that  your  share  of  profits  was  several  times  the  amount 
of  the  salary  you  received  each  week. 

iMr.  Webber  wishes  it  to  be  strictly  understood  that  this 
sharing  of  profits  is  not  to  be  considered  as  part  salary.  It 
is  a  reward.  The  amount  you  will  receive  will  of  course 
vary  at  one  time  from  another ;  naturally  profits  fluctuate, 
and  will  be  partly  accountable  to  the  amount  of  interest 
taken  by  you  in  the  business.  Therefore,  if  an  employe 
does  not  take  any  interest  in  the  business  he  must  not  ex- 
pect to  share  the  profits  which  his  interest  ought  to  have 
helped  accrue. 

This  action  upon  Mr.  Webber 's  part  being  done  with  the 
idea  of  getting  your  help,  it  will  be  at  his  discretion  to  dis- 
continue the  arrangement  should  it  fail  of  its  object. 

Now,  as  Mr.  Webber's  partners  in  his  business,  how  can 
you  help  to  increase  the  profits?     You  must  jjrevent  waste 


With  the  Beef  Trust  191 

by  yourself  and  others  in  time  and  material.     For  instance, 
you  know  that  many  waste  time,  and  time  is  money.     You 
know  that  many  use  more  paper  than  is  necessary  in  wrap- 
ping articles.     The  paper  and  twine  bill  of  this  establish 
inent  reaches  weekly  over  $300. 

You  must  prevent  dishonesty  and  wilful  neglect  in 
others.  If  you  feel  a  man  is  dishonest  or  wilfully  neglect- 
ful do  not  try  to  correct  the  fault  personally — he  would 
naturally  resent  your  interference — ^but  report  it  to  your 
superior.  This  cannot  be  considered  as  an  underhand  trick ; 
remember  you  are  a  partner  in  the  business. 

Obey  orders  of  your  superiors.  This  is  one  of  the  strong 
points  of  an  organization.  When  you  are  told  to  do  some- 
thing do  it  yourself;  do  not  turn  the  job  over  to  some  one 
else. 

You  must  save  expenses.  One  of  the  greatest  items  of 
our  business  is  the  deliveries.  You  can  save  money  there. 
As  a  salesman  you  can  perhaps  get  a  customer  to  carry  a 
small  package  by  asking,  *'Will  you  take  this  with  you?" 
That  suggests  to  the  customer  to  take  it.  When  you  have 
waited  on  a  customer  ask  if  there  is  anything  else.  If  there 
is,  it  means  the  saving  of  a  check,  of  extra  wrapping  papej" 
and  extra  delivery — a  saving  all  around. 

If  you  are  one  coming  in  contact  with  the  trade,  don't 
make  too  many  promises.  If  you  do  make  a  promise  see 
that  it  is  kept.     The  customers  must  not  be  disappointed. 

If  you  witness  an  accident  to  a  customer  report  it  at 
once  to  some  one  in  authority.  There  are  people  unprinci- 
pled enough  to  take  advantage  of  a  slight  accident  to  black- 
mail.    Should  you  have  an  accident  yourself  report  it. 

Never  shirk  the  blame  when  you  are  in  the  wrong.  There 


192  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

is  a  sign  upstairs  which  reads  to  the  effect  that  a  prompt 
acknowledgment  of  a  fault  saves  time  and  money,  and  tends 
largely  to  foster  good  feelings  between  employer  and  em- 
ployes. 

You  must  be  loyal  to  the  house.  You  must  always  up- 
hold the  establishment  and  those  in  it.  When  you  ' '  knock ' ' 
the  house  you  are  ' '  knocking ' '  yourself. 

You  must  obey  rules  and  see  that  others  do  so.  There 
is  an  object  for  every  rule  made.  They  are  necessary  for 
the  success  of  every  business.  You  see  signs  about  the 
house  prohibiting  smoking ;  why  ?  Because  fires  are  awful. 
We  need  look  back  but  a  few  days  to  recall  the  awful  ca- 
lamity of  the  Cowperthwait  fire,  and  others  of  even  greater 
magnitude. 

You  must  use  discretion.  For  instance,  if  you  should 
get  a  raise  in  salary  it  is  because  you  are  considered  worth 
it.  Don't  tell  others.  Your  fellow  employe  might  think 
he  is  entitled  to  it  when  he  is  not.  He  don't  know  it,  and 
consequently  he  wants  a  raise  and  is  dissatisfied  when  he 
don't  get  it.  Again,  but  a  few  days  ago  one  of  the  boys 
on  No.  5  counter  declined  to  sell  a  customer  four  pounds  of 
breast  of  mutton  because  he  didn't  have  just  the  weight 
handy.  The  goods  chosen  weighed  four  and  a  quarter 
pounds,  and  the  boy  could  not  see  his  way  clear  to  make  it 
four  pounds — very  poor  discretion !  In  this  case  a  quarter 
of  a  pound  of  fat  cut  off  would  have  been  no  loss.  It 
would  have  made  a  difference  of  a  cent,  and  as  fat  it  would 
bring  that  money.  It  is  a  different  matter  in  the  case  of 
a  porterhouse  steak  or  a  turkey,  where  the  article  must  be 
sold  as  it  is.  The  chances  are  that  the  customer  did  not 
have  enough  money  to  pay  for  more  than  four  pounds. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  193 

The  boy  would  have  sent  this  customer  away,  actually  los- 
ing the  sale.  Mind  you,  not  intentionally,  but  because  he 
didn  't  know  better.     He  has  not  yet  learned  discretion. 

You  have  a  right  to  suggest  improvements.  If  your 
suggestions  are  not  carried  out  do  not  feel  discouraged. 
The  head  of  the  house  is  not  able  perhaps  to  use  them  just 
then. 

You  must  be  in  harmony  with  the  house  and  those  about 
you.  You  are  all  working  for  the  same  head.  There  may 
be  some  rivalry  among  the  salesmen  for  the  highest  sales  or 
the  drivers  for  the  highest  number  of  deliveries,  but  let  this 
rivalry  be  friendly. 

As  salesmen  you  must  treat  your  trade  right.  Don't 
discriminate.  As  drivers,  treat  your  customers  right. 
Everybody  be  polite,  courteous  and  kind. 

As  superiors,  you  must  show  no  partiality  to  those  un- 
der you.  You  may  be  kind,  yet  positive;  otherwise  you 
lose  the  respect  of  those  of  whom  you  are  in  charge. 

To  condense  things,  whatever  your  position,  do  just 
what  you  feel  is  right. 

Reverting  again  to  Mr.  Webber's  plan  of  distribution 
of  these  profits,  the  idea  is  that  at  the  end  of  June  and  the 
end  of  December  20  per  cent,  of  the  net  profits  of  the  pre- 
ceding six  months  will  be  divided  among  those  who  have 
been  in  the  employ  of  Mr.  Webber  for  one  year  or  more, 
the  division  being  based  on  the  amount  of  salary  you  receive 
in  that  six  months.  Six  months'  business  cannot  be  closed 
up  in  a  few  days,  and  therefore  this  distribution  must  not 
be  expected  at  the  immediate  conclusion  of  each  six  months, 
but  as  soon  after  as  is  possible. 


[13] 


194  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

If  there  is  any  point  you  do  not  understand  say  so,  so  it 
may  be  -explained.  If  you  have  any  questions  to  ask  we 
would  be  happy  to  have  you  ask  them. 

Death  of  Richard  Webber. 

(From  the  National  Provisioner,  Oct.  17,  1908.) 

Another  bulwark  of  the  local  meat  trade  has  passed  into 
the  great  beyond.  Following  close  on  the  death  of  Charles 
Weisl)ecker,  the  big  Harlem  butcher,  the  trade  and  the  peo- 
ple at  large  were  greatly  shocked  to  learn  of  the  death  of 
Richard  Webber,  which  occurred  on  October  7  on  board  the 
steamer  St.  Louis,  on  which  he  was  returning  after  a  tour 
of  Europe.  The  news  was  received  by  wireless  and  gave 
the  bare  facts  that  Mr.  Webber  had  died  of  heart  disease  on 
that  day.  On  the  arrival  of  the  steamer  on  Saturday  it 
was  learned  that  Mr.  Webber  had  died  suddenly  at  7  :45 
p.  m.  while  seemingly  the  picture  of  health,  having  been 
much  benefited  by  his  stay  abroad.  With  his  passing  the 
trade  loses  not  only  the  largest  retailer  in  the  world,  but  a 
man  who  has  made  his  personality  and  business  ability  felt 
all  over  the  country.  Through  his  large  business,  known 
as  the  Harlem  Packing  House,  at  120th  street  and  Third 
avenue,  through  his  membership  in  the  New  York  Produce 
Exchange,  the  Poultry  and  Game  Trade  Association,  the 
American  Meat  Packers'  Association,  his  affiliations  with 
the  local  meat  trade  societies,  through  his  poultry  and  pack- 
ing house  in  Sioux  City,  la.,  and  his  small  stock  slaughter 
house  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  he  had  met  and  had  dealings  with 
so  many  people  that  his  name  was  extremely  familiar  in  the 
trade. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  195 

Mr.  Webber  was  61  years  of  age,  having  been  born  at 
Chulmleigh,  Devonshire,  England,  January  21,  1847.  It 
is  on  record  that  his  father  was  considered  the  best  judge 
of  cattle  in  his  day  in  the  west  of  England  when  beef  was 
bought  on  the  hoof  by  the  head  instead  of  by  the  pound  as 
nowadays.  He  left  home  when  15  years  of  age  and  went  to 
Exeter,  the  nearest  big  city,  remaining  there  until  1863, 
when  he  went  to  London.  In  1868  he  emigrated  to  Canada, 
and  after  remaining  in  Montreal  a  short  while  he  went  to 
Chicago.  In  1870  he  came  to  New  York  and  accepted  a 
position  as  journeyman  butcher  and  salesman  for  David 
Warwick  at  118th  street  and  Third  avenue.  In  1873  he 
started  in  business  for  himself,  operating  a  combined  wagon 
and  store  pork  trade,  later  entering  into  partnership  with 
James  W.  Sears  at  2194  Third  avenue.  Mr.  Webber  with- 
drew from  this  partnership  in  1876  and  continued  business 
himself  at  2134  Third 'avenue,  and  the  following  year  re- 
moved to  210  East  120th  street,  the  present  headquarters. 

The  history  of  the  growth  of  Mr.  Webber's  business  is 
typical  of  the  tireless  energy  and  the  foresight  of  the  man. 
Bj^  square  dealing  he  endeared  himself  to  his  patrons  until 
he  became  the  largest  retail  butcher  in  the  world,  employ- 
ing some  500  persons  and  occupying  fifteen  city  lots  with 
his  plant. 

Besides  his  business  Mr.  Webber  devoted  considerable 
of  his  attention  to  financial,  educational  and  charitable  in- 
stitutions. He  was  trustee  of  the  Harlem  Savings  Bank, 
and  in  October,  1907,  during  the  run  on  that  institution 
guaranteed  the  accounts  of  employes  and  others,  thereby 
preventing  a  serious  panic.  He  contributed  largely  in  a 
financial  way  to  the  advancement  of  art  and  education  in 


196  Twenty  Yeabs  in  Hell 

New  York  eity,  although,  seeking  no  publicity  whatever  in 
these  donations. 

He  was  a  pioneer  educator  along  the  lines  of  teaching 
housewives  the  purchasing  of  and  cutting  of  meats.  When 
the  teach,  rs'  college  opened  its  domestic  science  department 
Mr.  Webber  and  four  of  his  men  took  possession  of  one  of 
the  college  halls  at  the  invitation  of  the  faculty  and  set  up 
a  butcher  shop  complete  in  every  detail.  He  taught  the 
girl  students  all  about  meats,  explaining  the  mysteries  of 
steaks,  chops,  chuck  steak  and  stew.  Similar  lectures  were 
given  the  Pratt  Institute  in  Brooklyn.  During  the  hard 
times  of  1893-94  he  established  a  soup  kitchen  in  his  store 
for  the  needy.  He  was  also  responsible  for  the  foundation 
of  the  Richard  Webber  Mutual  Benefit  Society,  the  organi- 
zation of  the  employes  of  the  house  and  the  employes'  profit 
sharing  plan,  which  was  put  into  effect  in  January,  1907. 
The  esteem  and  reverence  with  which  he  was  held  in  the 
employes'  estimation  is  evidenced  by  the  various  gifts  and 
testimonials  which  have  been  presented  to  him. 

The  funeral  was  held  on  Monday  morning  and  was  one 
of  the  largest  held  in  Harlem  in  many  years.  The  services 
were  held  in  Trinity  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  East 
118th  street,  of  which  the  deceased  was  treasurer.  The 
meat  trade  was  represented  by  a  full  attendance,  who  came 
to  pay  their  last  respects  to  their  fellow  craftsman.  Be- 
sides being  a  member  of  many  societies,  which  were  repre- 
sented at  the  funeral,  Mr.  Webber  was  a  philanthropist,  and 
many  of  the  poor  whom  he  had  helped  went  to  the  church 
to  pay  their  last  respects.  There  were  also  present  the  em- 
ployes of  Mr.  Webber's  business  establishment,  who  marched 
to  the  residence  at  187  Madison  avenue  and  from  there  to 


"With  the  Beef  Trust  197 

the  church.  Each  carried  a  flower,  and  as  he  passed  the 
coffin  placed  it  on  it.  There  were  four  carriages  of  large 
floral  pieces.     The  burial  was  in  Mount  Kisco  Cemetery. 

Mr,  Webber  leaves  a  widow,  a  daughter  and  two  sons, 
Richard,  Jr.,  and  William,  who  were  associated  with  their 
father  in  the  business. 

MEAT    CUTTING    DEMONSTRATION. 

On  Wednesday,  April  28,  1909,  at  2  p.  m.,  at  our  Tre- 
mont  branch,  177th  street  and  Webster  avenue,  Bronx,  we 
will  give  a  meat  cutting  demonstration  and  short  talk  simi- 
lar to  those  given  by  us  at  various  times  before  Teachers' 
CoUege  of  New  York,  Horace  Mann  School  of  New  York, 
Pratt  Institute  of  Brooklyn,  pure  food  show.  Grand  Cen- 
tral Palace  (by  N.  Y.  Household  Economic  Association), 
etc.,  etc. 

Mr.  Theodore  Carlewitz,  manager  of  the  Tr^mont 
branch,  a  practical  meat  man  of  twenty-four  years'  experi- 
ence, in  addition  to  giving  a  great  amount  of  other  valuable 
information  will  explain  the  various  uses  of  the  different 
cuts  of  meat,  which  knowledge  cannot  fail  to  assist  the  pur- 
chaser in  the  intelligent  and  economical  selection  of  their 
meat  requirements. 

Cards  of  admission  may  be  had  upon  application  to  the 
Tremont  branch  either  by  mail,  telephone  or  in  person.  In 
order  to  avoid  confusion  each  card  of  admission  will  be 
numbered  according  to  the  seat. 

Richard  Webber,  Tremont  Branch, 
177th  street  and  Webster  avenue,  Bronx. 


198  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

STATESMEN,  POLITICIANS,  ETC. 

Now  I  want  to  turn  to  another  class  of  men  whom  I 
have  been  closely  allied  with  for  the  last  forty  years — that 
is,  those  who  are  kno\^Ti  as  statesmen,  politicians,  etc.  The 
best  politician  and  statesman  I  ever  knew  in  my  time  was 
Oliver  P.  Morton,  late  Governor  of  Indiana.  He  died 
worth  less  than  Jp20,000  after  being  the  Governor  of  Indiana 
and  senator  of  the  United  States.  He  knew  a  smart  man 
when  he  saw  one,  and  wonld  take  no  one  around  with  him 
except  those  who  would  obey  his  orders.  In  any  organi- 
zation, political  or  business,  if  one  does  not  obey  the  orders 
of  the  superior  you  cannot  get  good  results.  Note  what 
Richard  Webber  had  to  say  on  this.  He  was  a  past  master 
on  discipline,  the  same  as  Squire  and  Eastman.  Wilson 
I  think  was  the  best  I  ever  knew  in  making  a  balance  sheet 
and  having  it  out  on  time,  which  is  the  most  important 
thing  in  life  if  you  have  any  anticipation  of  succeediug. 
Let  me  cite  you  Ham  Conner,  who  educated  me  politically. 
His  father  settled  in  Hamilton  county  near  Strawtown  in 
1806,  coming  from  Connersville,  Indiana.  Morton  knew 
Ham — he  was  a  smart  one  when  a  boy.  He  brought  him 
to  Indianapolis  and  made  him  postmaster  during  the  war, 
and  made  him  chairman  of  the  Republican  state  committee 
during  a  critical  time  when  he  was  dealing  with  what  was 
Imown  as  the  Butternuts  in  Indiana. 

Now  the  next  prominent  man  is  Tom  Piatt.  I  knew 
him  well.  I  met  him  first  in  the  Chicago  convention  in 
1880  Avhen  I  was  helping  to  hold  up  the  306  with  Fred 
Grant,  Conkling,  John  C.  New  and  Logan.  Fred  Grant 
slept  at  the  head(juarters  all  the  time.     We  were  there  a 


With  the  Beef  Teust  199 

week  before  the  convention  and  remained  until  the  finish. 
Tom  had  the  details  all  right;  he  knew  how  to  do  all  right, 
and  he  was  always  able  to  furnish  the  price,  which  was  a 
great  thing  in  the  game  of  politics.     Tie  was  a  sure  early  to 
rise  man,  but  some  nights  he  did  not  go  to  bed  at  all  unless 
he  had  finished  all  his  work.     Every  year  when  politics 
were  raging  in  New  York  I  would  probably  be  there  every 
few  months.     Tom  would  go  to  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel, 
as  that  was  the  Republican  headquarters  and  where  all  the 
political  busmess  was  done,  and  live  there  until  the  cam- 
paign closed.     I  would  -get  up  and  go  to  breakfast  at  six 
o'clock  in  the  morning.     I  had  to  see  my  customers  early, 
but  I  always  found  Piatt  waiting  for  his  breakfast,  looking 
over  a  big  batch  of  letters  which  had  to  be  answered.     Also 
during  the  Harrison  term  in  Washington  I  would  go  to 
breakfast  at  six,  and  I  would  always  find  Piatt  there  read- 
ing his  mail.     He  w^ould  say:     ''Rhody,  these  are  just  a 
few  (he  would  probably  have  fifty  letters)  that  my  secre- 
tary has  picked  out,  of  importance,  that  must  be  answered 
today,  out  of  four,  five  or  ten  baskets  full."     Tom  would 
always  answer  all  the  letters  he  got  from  his  constituents, 
keeping  up  with  the  little  precinct  men,  as  well  as  the  ward 
men,  the  county  men  and  the  state  men,  and  he  never  made 
a  promise  to  anyone  that  he  did  not  keep.      He  always 
Avanted  honest  men  around  him,  and  if  they  were  not  honest 
with  him  he  would  soon  put  others  in  their  places.     He  was 
a  wonderful  man  in  ability,  but  he  always  had  an  eye  open 
to  the  interest  of  his  big  corporation,  the  express  company, 
of  which  he  Avas  president.     This  class  of  men  are  very 
dangerous  to  the  plain,  common  working  people,  that  is,  to 
have  them  in  the  United  States  Senate.     There  is  no  ques- 


200  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

tion  but  what  the  interest  of  their  corporation  is  nearer  and 
dearer  to  them  than  the  common,  plain  people  when  it 
comes  to  voting  on  legislation.  I  might  mention  here  a 
great  many  others  in  the  same  class. 

There  are  many  mushroom  politicians  who  grow  up  in 
a  night  and  come  in  on  the  tide,  so  to  speak;  such,  unfortu- 
nately, we  have  had  in  Indiana  since  '96,  coming  to  Wash- 
ington, who  think  they  can  run  the  government,  and  that 
they  have  a  lifetime  job  on  their  $5,000  a  year.  A  congress- 
man cannot  live  on  $5,000  a  year  and  live  honestly.  I  have 
not  been  able  to  live  on  $5,000  a  year  in  forty-five  years, 
although  I  was  forty  years  old  before  I  married  and  had  a 
family.  There  has  been  a  new  era  in  Indiana  since  '96 
with  the  statesmen.  Up  to  that  time,  commencing  with 
Morton,  Hendricks,  McDonald,  Voorhees,  Turpie  and  Har- 
rison, no  man  from  Indiana  who  served  in  the  United  States 
Senate  died  with  accumulated  wealth  of  over  $100,000  at 
the  time  of  his  death,  with  the  possible  exception  of  Harri- 
son. He  received  $100,000  after  he  left  the  presidential 
office.  Before  he  went  to  the  President's  office  he  was  not 
worth  $100,000  after  practicing  law  for  many  years.  He 
was  an  honest  man  to  his  clients.  I  will  never  forget, 
1  came  on  here  after  Harrison  was  senator  and  he  made  me 
go  home  with  him  for  dinner.  I  told  him  that  there  had 
been  twenty  lobbyists  after  me  after  they  had  seen  us  sit- 
ting together  talking  in  the  cloak  room  of  the  Senate — they 
were  all  warming  up  to  me.  (Tkere  was  an  important  bill 
they  were  trying  to  get  through — some  canal  to  cut  across 
from  Baltimore  into  the  ocean.)  "Yes,"  he  said,  "there 
are  all  kinds  of  men  put  up  against  me  on  that,  and  they 
are  feeling  all  around  to  know  what  will  be  done."     I  said: 


With  the  Beef  Trust  201 

"I  think  I  can  handle  them.  They  are  warming  up  to  me 
and  they  think  that  they  can  handle  you  through  me.  They 
think  I  am  a  friend  of  yours."  He  said:  ''I  have  lived 
too  long  for  anybody  to  handle  me,  and  I  know  you  are 
too  smart  to  be  handled."  There  were  any  number  of 
lobbyists — some  big  ones.  They  would  take  me  driving, 
show  me  the  town,  take  me  to  the  theater,  we  would  go  out 
and  have  a  drink,  etc.  They  were  a  clever  set  of  men.  I 
realized  thej^  were  trying  to  string  me,  but  I  could  not  be 
strung.  Some  evenings  we  would  get  into  a  little  game  of 
poker.  There  is  nothing  that  brightens  up  a  man's  wits 
more  than  a  game  of  poker  and  hearts,  that  is,  when  he  is 
playing  with  gentlemen  and  they  can  afford  to  lose  the 
money.  I  would  tell  Harrison  how  they  were  trying  to  do 
the  business.  He  would  laugh  and  say  that  they  would 
never  handle  him. 

Now  there  is  another  class  of  politicians  that  get  to  be 
United  State?  senators  or  congressmen  on  their  looks  and 
general  appearances.  That  is  a  very  far-reaching  thing  in 
the  countrj^  Let  me  cite  to  you  a  case  of  a  man  I  knew 
well  for  more  than  thirty  or  thirty-five  years — that  is.  Sen- 
ator Scott  of  West  Virginia.  He  weighs  about  250  pounds, 
has  a  doll  baby  face,  always  looking  wise.  He  always  at- 
tended the  Republican  national  conventions,  sometimes  as 
a  delegate,  and  about  thirty  years  ago  he  became  chairman 
of  the  national  committee  from  West  Virginia.  He  would 
come  to  a  national  convention  with  three,  four  and  five 
suits  of  clothes,  and  would  change  his  suits  at  least  three 
or  four  times  every  day.  He  never  went  to  dinner  in  the 
evening  without  being  in  full  dress,  and  always  picked  a 
time  to  come  in  when  the  dining  room  was  full,  so  the  peo- 


202  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

pie  would  look  at  the  big,  handsome  man  with  the  doll  baby 
face.  As  I  recollect  it,  he  had  at  one  time  a  plaid  suit  of 
clothes.  I  think  it  was  red  and  green  or  green  and  white. 
I  will  never  forget  what  John  New  told  me  one  time.  He 
said:  "There  is  the  greatest  lot  of  shucks  with  the  small- 
est nubbin  in  it  I  ever  saAV.  Why,  there  is  enough  shucks 
on  it  to  make  a  bed  mattress,  and  there  cannot  be  over  three 
grains  of  corn  on  the  nubbin," 

Scott  of  course  was  a  delegate,  but  we  would  not  let 
him  within  four  rooms  of  the  inside  room,  because  he  would 
be  giving  it  all  away,  that  is,  tell  what  was  going  on.  In 
fact,  he  would  give  it  away  while  he  was  dressing  for  din- 
ner. 

Another  was  Conkling.  He  was  always  a  well  dressed 
man.  When  he  came  to  the  conventions  he  wore  a  plain, 
nice  working  suit.  I  never  saw  Tom  Piatt  at  a  convention 
only  in  working  clothes.  Warmouth  of  Louisiana,  General 
Powell  Clayton  of  Arkansas,  Mat  Quay  of  Pennsylvania, 
H.  Clay  Evans  of  Tennessee,  also  Colonel  Wills  of  Nash- 
ville, Tennessee,  and- Tom  Piatt  of  New  York — all  these 
men  came  to  the  conventions  with  a  grip  of  underclothes 
and  a  few  shirts  to  work  in.  They  came  to  work,  evidently, 
but  Scott  always  brought  about  two  trunks  and  a  valet  and 
a  manicurist — he  carried  them  in  stock.  He  is  what  is 
said. as  being  "all  sound  and  no  sense,"  looking  at  himself, 
but  not  seeing  how  other  people  regarded  him.  One  time 
I  asked  him  how  my  friend  Schenk  was.  He  said:  "Who 
is  Schenk?"  I  told  him  Schenk  the  butcher.  I  said: 
Why,  he  is  the  greatest  man  in  Wheeling.  He  is  one  of  the 
biggest  butchers  in  the  South.  He  built  a  four-story  build- 
ing covering  about  100  feet  front  and  150  feet  deep  just 


With  the  Beef  Trust  203 

half  a  square  from  the  Tavern,  the  old  hotel  where  Scott 
boarded.  Of  course  when  I  went  to  see  Schenk  I  always 
warmed  up  to  Scott,  yet  I  w^ould  have  to  introduce  myself 
to  him  every  time,  tell  him  who  I  was  and  what  I  was.  He 
does  not  know  anything  about  the  blue  grass  in  West  Vir- 
ginia or  the  vast  progress  that  has  been  made  in  that  State 
in  the  last  thirty  years,  but  he  does  know  all  about  the  big 
corporations.  He  is  a  cuckoo  to  vote  on  this  tariff  bill.  He 
will  protect  the  farmers,  as  we  say  in  the  "West,  "in  a  pig's 
eye. ' '  There  is  another  thing  I  want  to  call  your  attention 
to  about  him.  There  was  a  man  near  Strawtown  who  had 
a  spotted  stallion.  He  would  bring  him  in  on  election  days 
to  show  him  off.  That  was  when  I  was  a  boy,  and  I  thought 
he  was  the  prettiest  thing  I  ever  saw.  Scott  very  much  re- 
minds me  of  the  spotted  stallion  at  Strawtown  that  all  of 
us  children  got  stuck  on,  and  comparatively  speaking  T 
think  all  of  the  senators  are  attracted  by  Scott's  show. 

Chauncey  Depew  is  another  senator  that  is  equal  to 
Scott  of  West  Virginia.  He  even  takes  more  trunks  than 
Scott  when  he  goes  to  the  national  conventions.  He  was 
(>nce  a  very  handsome  man,  but  he  is  wearing  a  little  now. 
He  never  knew  much  what  was  going  on,  but  he  did  what- 
ever Tom  Piatt  said.  At  the  convention  in  1888  Levi  P. 
Morton  was  a  candidate  at  that  time  from  New  York.  Obe 
Wheeler  was  his  delegate  from  his  district.  He  was  five 
or  six  years  younger  than  T,  yet  we  were  very  close  friends. 
Obe  Wheeler  was  a  politician  in  Morton's  district,  and  I 
felt  sure  that  I  could  land  Obe  when  we  got  to  a  certain 
point  and  then  we  could  turn  to  Harrison.  Obe's  father 
was  the  oldest  commission  man  in  Jersey  City  and  New 
York,  and  sold  stock  for  me  more  than  forty  years  ago. 


204  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

Of  course  1  agreed  to  turn  to  Morton  if  things  were  going 
his  way;  anything  to  beat  John  Sherman. 

At  this  time  Chaunoey  Depew  did  not  know  anything 
abont  Obe  and  he  did  not  know  anything  about  me.  I  no- 
ticed at  the  last  convention  Chauncey  had  his  wife  with 
him,  and  she  was  a  handsome  woman.  She  wore  one  of 
those  new  fashioned  divided  skirt  dresses,  and  Chauncey 
would  walk  about  ten  feet  in  front  of  her  so  he  could  show 
both  himself  and  her  off.  I  saw  him  and  spoke  to  him,  but 
he  said,  ' '  Excuse  me  please ;  I  will  see  you  later. ' '  You 
see,  he  was  on  dress  parade,  and  he  was  also  showing  off 
his  wife's  dress.  I  could  see  from  her  knee  down.  After 
he  got  through  going  through  all  the  halls  of  the  Audi- 
torium on  this  dress  parade  then  he  went  and  changed  his 
clothes  and  said  that  he  would  now  talk  to  me.  We  had  a 
talk.  He  is  always  looking  at  himself  and  seeing  that 
everybody  saw  him,  the  same  as  Senator  Scott. 

Note,  an  interview  which  appeared  in  the  Indianapolis 
Journal  under  date  of  October  6,  1896,  and  which  will  ex- 
plain itself.  It  was  at  a  time  when  I  was  making  a  few 
speeches.  The  excitement  was  very  high  in  Indiana,  and 
nearly  all  the  big  orators  were  called  into  the  State.  It  ap- 
plies to  a  big  man  in  a  little  town.  In  my  mind  it  is  a  very 
fair  application  and  is  applied  to  a  czar,  Senator  Aldrich, 
as  a  big  man  in  a  little  town.  I  was  once  a  very  big  man  at 
Strawtown.  In  1867  or  1868  I  had  within  a  mile  and  a  half 
of  Strawtown  a  thousand  hogs  on  feed  at  one  time  in  one 
wood  pasture.  In  less  than  a  mile  and  a  half  of  the  same 
place  I  had  fifteen  hundred  sheep  on  feed.  I  had  a  play- 
mate by  the  name  of  Dave  Sperry,  who  was  killed  in  ^Ic- 
Cook's  raid  around  Atlanta.    He  was  my  bunk  mate  in  the 


/  With  the  Beef  Trust  205 

war.  We  lived  on  ad  joining  farms.  Joljn  Sperry,  elder 
brother  of  Dave,  served  in  the  75th  Indiana.  He  came  home 
and  went  to  work  on  the  farm.  I  knew  he  was  home  and 
that  he  was  an  honest  man,  and  I  said:  "John,  go  down 
into  Hancock  County;  they  are  giving  hogs  away  down 
there.  Buy  five  hundred  or  a  thousand,  and  also  go  up 
the  river  and  buy  three  or  four  thousand  bushels  of  corn." 
He  said :  ' '  Rhody,  I  Ve  got  no  money. '  *  I  told  him  I  could 
get  all  the  money  I  wanted,  and  knew  he  and  his  family 
were  all  honest  (four  of  them  served  in  the  war),  and  if  he 
made  anything  on  them  I  wanted  half  the  profits,  and  if  not, 
I  would  shoulder  the  loss.  John  made  as  much  as  from 
$1,000  to  $2,000  at  that  time,  and  made  enough  to  go  to 
Kansas  and  buy  a  farm.  He  owns  possibly  a  thousand 
acres  there  now  and  is  president  of  a  feank  at  Thayer,  Kan- 
sas. Besides  that  I  had  a  number  of  smaller  feeders  to 
whom  I  furnished  money.  They  had  two  or  three  hundred 
hogs  each,  feeding,  and  at  the  same  time  I  was  a  partner 
with  James  Flanders  feeding  about  six  hundred  mules,  be- 
sides being  a  partner  with  Harmon  Minter  in  a  big  store 
in  Strawtown.  I  was  a  big  man  in  a  little  town,  as  I  used 
to  go  to  New  York  every  few  weeks,  and  when  I  got  back 
after  selling  a  train  load  or  two  of  stock  I  was  the  whole 
thing  at  Strawtown. 

Providence,  R.  I.,  has  had  a  United  States  senator,  Al- 
drich  for  something  like  thirty  years.  I  know  him  by  sight 
well,  but  he  does  not  seem  to  know  me.  He  is  the  only  Repub- 
lican senator  who  has  been  in  the  Senate  for  twenty-five 
years  that  I  don't  know  personally  and  intimately.  I  met 
him  some  three  or  four  weeks  ago,  about  inauguration  time, 
in  the  new  office  building  at  the  Capitol.    I  shook  hands  with 


206  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell  s 

him  and  he  did  not  seem  to  know  who  I  was.  I  asked  him 
how  my  friend  Mason  was — was  he  living  or  dead?  He 
said,  ''What  Mason?"  I  said,  "I.  B.  Mason."  He  said, 
''I  believe  I  forget  him."  I  said,  ''0,  you  know  Mason. 
He  has  been  voting  for  you  for  senator ;  he  has  been  a  mem- 
ber of  the  legislature  in  Rhode  Island  several  times. ' '  He 
said  he  believed  he  was  living,  and  I  told  him  to  give  him 
my  regards.  When  Mr.  and  Mrs.  'Mason  were  here  in  Wash- 
ington during  Harrison's  term — I  think  it  might  have  been 
the  time  of  the  inauguration — I  took  them  and  introduced 
them  to  President  and  Mrs.  Harrison. 

If  Aldrich  will  read  this  interview  and  also  my  speech 
with  Charlie  Landis  at  Jimtown  he  may  have  some  knowl- 
edge of  the  stock  business.  Most  of  the  politicians  in  the 
West  have  been  stock  men  in  their  time ;  in  fact,  a  great 
many  big  men  have  weighed  stock  in  the  yards.  In  fact, 
most  of  the  county  officers  and  statesmen  holding  offices  in 
the  West  have  become  acquainted  with  the  farmers  while 
buying  stock,  and  then  have  run  for  county  offices  and  also 
for  state  offices.  ' '  Ba,by ' '  McKee  's  father,  Robert,  weighed 
stock  for  something  like  two  years.  He  was  a  good  weigh- 
master.  Of  course  everybody  knows  who  ''Baby"  McKee 
was.  Also  Joe  Fanning,  who  is  now  Belmont's  private  sec- 
retary or  New  York  political  manager,  and  the  best  Demo- 
cratic politician  Indiana  produced  in  twenty  years.  Joe 
has  always  been  my  personal  friend.  He  was  known  in  the 
stock  yards  as  the  billing  clerk,  and  has  billed  out  as  many 
as  two  or  three  train  loads  a  day  for  me.  Also  United 
States  Senator  McPherson  was  a  chief  lieutenant  of  the  high 
priest;  in  fact,  he  lived  in  New  Jersey  and  had  one  com- 
mission firm  in  Jersey  City  at  the  time  he  and  the  high 
priest  organized  the  pool  in  the  stock  exchange. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  207 

As  I  have  stated  above,  when  they  got  into  politics  they 
would  buy  stock  in  the  country  and  then  run  for  office. 
That  was  my  long  suit  in  Indiana  in  the  state  conventions. 
When  the  people  brought  their  stock  into  the  yards,  Demo- 
crat or  Republican,  I  had  them  to  vote  for  my  Democratic 
friend,  if  a  Democrat,  and  for  my  Republican  friend,  if  a 
Republican.  Consequently,  I  had  what  might  be  called  a 
strong  pull.  I  don 't  think  I  ever  had  my  slate  broken  either 
in  a  Democratic  or  a  Republican  state  convention. 

Later  on,  in  a  large  book  I  am  going  to  prepare  and  have 
issued  in  December,  I  will  take  this  matter  up  more  fully 
with  the  individuals  connected  with  the  beef  trusts.  There 
are  more  of  them  living  than  I  thought  there  were,  but  in 
the  short  time  I  have  had  to  prepare  this — only  had  four 
days  for  the  first  brief  and  scarcely  three  weeks  to  prepare 
this — will  not  permit  me  to  get  any  more  letters  to  sub- 
stantiate who  I  am  and  what  I  have  done.  There  are  many 
living  now  I  find  in  New  England,  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Kentucky  and  Illi- 
nois that  are  from  seventy-five  to  ninety-two  years  old.  I 
refer  to  those  with  whom  I  have  done  business. 

The  Czar  could  not  carry  a  precinct  in  any  ward  any- 
where in  the  West.  The  only  long  suit  he  had  was  he  knows 
the  game  of  politics,  he  is  not  afraid,  and  he  has  got  the 
price  and  uses  it.     That  is  a  strong  combination. 

I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  an  Indiana  politician, 
the  mushroom  politician.  Jack  Gowdy.  The  one  that  fell 
in  the  last  battle.  He  has  been  consul  general  to  Paris 
for  eight  years.  He  has  been  in  politics  ever  since  he  left 
the  army.  He  was  very  unfortunate  in  getting  wounded 
in  the  leg,  which  made  him  lame.  He  has  held  every  office 
known  in  Rush  county,  in  fact,  he  has  never  been  out  of 


208  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

office  since  the  war  with  the  exception  of  the  time  he  was 
chairman  of  the  state  committee.  He  was  a  great  pretended 
friend  of  General  Harrison.  In  1900  he  was  made  chair- 
man of  the  committee.  In  1892  he  apparently  wanted  Har- 
rison nominated,  but  in  ^96  he  betrayed  his  maker  and 
turned  on  Harrison  and  helped  to  defeat  him  at  a  time 
when  he  was  chairman  of  the  committee.  This  was  a  deal 
made  by  Senator  Fairbanks,  who  had  never  been  for  Harri- 
son. If  he  had  been  loyal  to  Harrison  he  would  probably 
have  received  the  third  nomination  and  been  elected,  but 
when  Gowdy  betrayed  him  Harrison  wrote  a  letter  declin- 
ing the  nomination.  I  never  spoke  to  Gowdy  after  this 
lintil  he  returned  from  Paris.  ITp  to  this  time  he  did  not 
think  he  would  have  any  trouble  m  carrying  Indiana.  This 
was  the  time  when  Gowdy  turned  on  Harrison  and  beat 
Nebeker,  the  United  States  treasurer,  for  chairman  of  the 
committee.  I  told  Harrison  then  that  the  only  way  to 
aarry  Indiana  was  with  the  regular  number  of  delegates  to 
elect  Nebeker;  but  as  it  turned  out,  three  or  four  of  the 
committeemen  betrayed  us  after  we  had  elected  them,  all 
of  whom  were  given  fat  offices  afterwards.  Gowdy  has 
been  in  office  until  he  has  become  independent.  Some  say 
that  he  is  worth  a  million ;  .  he  owhs  a  thousand  acres  of 
land.  He  has  only  one  daughter.  She  is  about  forty  to 
forty-five  years  old.  She  married  a  consul  general  to  Chile. 
He  has  no  heirs  and  no  prospect  of  any.  He  ought  to  pay 
an  inheritance  tax.  This  is  what  brought  about  the  great 
change  in  Indiana.  There  are  hundreds  of  people  in  In- 
diana that  should  have  held  offices,  but  as  I  have  said,  Gow- 
dy and  all  his  relatives  have  been  in  office  ever  since  the 
war.     Later  the  Landis  family  came  to  Indiana,  and  they 


With  the  Beef  Trust  209 

thought  there  was  nobody  quite  so  important  as  the  Landis 
family.  We  had  four  Landises  to  come  from  Ohio,  all  of 
whom  have  been  in  office  and  all  of  them  are  my  personal 
friends,  and  they  have  about  fifty  relatives  in  office.  All 
this  was  discussed  in  the  campaign  and  had  all  to  do  with 
the  beating  of  their  friend  Watson  and  made  the  majority 
for  Taft  small.  The  politicians  of  the  last  ten  or  twelve 
years  have  come  in  with  the  tide,  and  they  have  never 
realized  that  the  tide  ever  goes  out.  They  are  all  out  now, 
and  we  have  only  one  old  Republican  now  in  Congress,  and 
he  has  been  fighting  the  Beef  Trust  and  in  favor  of  the 
pure  food  law,  and  this  shows  the  difference  between  his 
success  and  the  failure  of  Wadsworth. 

Note  another  thing.  I  have  been  stopping  in  Wash- 
ington for  a  month.  I  get  up  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  I  can't  buy  a  newspaper  or  see  anybody  on  the 
streets  until  after  seven,  and  not  many  before  seven-thirty. 
President  Roosevelt  made  a  great  mistake,  to  my  mind, 
when  he  made  employes  work  a  half  hour  longer.  He 
should  have  taken  off  half  an  hour  and  put  the  government 
officials  to  work  at  seven  and  let  them  quit  at  three.  Then 
they  would  have  been  able  to  go  to  all  of  the  baseball  games 
and  would  have  gotten  through  with  all  their  work  in  the 
cool  of  the  day  and  when  they  have  more  vitality.  I  was 
generally  through  with  my  work  by  noon  and  able  to  go 
to  baseball  in  the  afternoon.  Of  course  the  government 
employes  avouM  like  to  go  to  baseball,  and  if  you  put  them 
to  work  early  then  they  would  have  plenty  of  time.  This 
was  established  by  the  Southerners.  The  slave  holders 
never  got  up  early,  but  they  generally  had  the  slaves  up 
early. 

[14] 


210  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

For  what  I  have  thus  far  said,  I  may  fall  at  the  hand 
of  an  assassin  but  I  won't  fall  at  the  hands  of  these  con- 
spirators.    An  anarchist  is  a  gentleman  beside  them. 

A  WORD  FOR  THE  SOLDIERS. 

Note,  this  is  another  thing  that  has  been  very  much 
neglected,  that  is,  service  pension.  I  served  four  years, 
and  am  blind  in  one  eye,  and  yet  I  get  a  pension  of  only 
$12  per  month,  and  this  for  age.  My  brother,  James  K., 
three  years  older  than  I  am,  just  recently  died  while  I  was 
in  the  South.  J  ames  K.  was  one  of  the  best  soldiers  I  ever 
knew.  We  both  served  in  the  same  company  and  came 
home  with  the  company  after  serving  four  years.  He  was 
always  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight  and  was  taken  prisoner 
at  Stone  River,  where  our  regiment  lost  over  300  men.  He 
was  taken  to  Libby  prison,  where  he  got  the  smallpox.  His 
eyes  were  always  weak  after  that,  and  last  year  he  was 
practically  blind.  He  went  to  Red  Rock,  Iowa,  after  the 
close  of  the  war  and  owned  as  much  as  a  thousand  acres 
of  land  there.  He  prospered  there,  but  he  got  the  Chicago 
craze,  went  there  and  sold  one  farm  after  another  until 
all  were  gone,  and  died  a  poor  man.  He  was  getting  a  $12 
pension  on  his  age.  Now  we  had  what  was  known  as  the 
Persimmon  Brigade  through  Indiana.  It  was  a  three 
months  brigade.  They  got  in  and  around  East  Tennessee 
guarding  railroads  while  Sherman  was  in  Atlanta.  They 
were  the  whole  push  for  a  while  so  far  as  army  records 
were  concerned.  Many  of  them  got  a  pension  of  from  $15 
to  $30.  There  are  a  great  many  old  veterans  that  served  in 
the  war.  A  veteran,  as  I  understand  it,  is  a  soldier  that 
has  served  a  long  time.  You  must  remember  that  these 
old  veterans  have  a  great  many  sons  and  sons-in-law,  and 


With  the  Beef  Trust  211 

you  can 't  spit  on  the  old  man  without  some  of  them  taking 
it  up. 

While  traveling  the  other  day  in  A^irginia  I  met  an  old 
soldier  just  my  age,  born  in  the  same  month.  He  has  one 
wooden  leg.  I  saw  he  had  a  Confederate  button  on  and  I 
bad  on  a  Grand  Army  button.  We  commenced  shaking 
hands,  and  I  asked  him  w^here  he  got  that  leg  torn  off,  and 
he  said  in  front  of  Widow^  Glenn's  house,  Chickamauga, 
about  noon.  He  belonged  to  Longstreet's  corps.  I  told 
him  I  expect  I  shot  it  off.  He  saw  that  I  am  blind  in  one 
eye,  and  lie  says  I  expect  I  shot  your  eye  out.  I  asked 
him  how  much  pension  he  w^as  getting.  He  said  $4. '  I  told 
him  that  I  w^as  getting  $12,  and  I  was  going  to  see  if  I 
could  not  get  him  more.  I  told  him  he  especially  ought  to 
have  more  than  that  at  his  age,  that  he  was  an  old  veteran. 
Joe  Billheimer,  first  cousin  of  the  Indiana  state  auditor, 
was  shot  in  the  right  eye  and  fell  dead.  He  was  my  left 
hand  man,  and  I  would  do  as  much  for  my  new  Confederate 
friend  as  I  would  have  done  for  Billheimer.  President 
Harrison  and  I  discussed  this  matter  several  times,  and  he 
said  it  w^ould  come  eventually.  He  did  not  know  whether 
he  was  for  or  against  the  government  then,  but  he  did  know^ 
he  was  fighting  for  a  home,  and  that  is  why  the  general 
government  ought  to  take  the  burden  off  the  states.  I  be- 
lieve that  every  loyal  Union  soldier  will  agree  to  this.  I 
have  property  in  the  South  and  am  taxed  to.  pay  the  state 
pension,  while  the  Confederate  soldier  that  has  moved 
North  is  not  taxed  for  it.  There  is  a  general  feeling  be- 
tween soldiers,  and  I  feel  that  he  ought  to  be  getting  more. 
The  war  is  over,  so  why  carry  on  these  prejudices  any 
longer.     They  have  been  carried  on  too  long  now. 


212  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

LETTERS   ON   THE   TRUSTS. 

Indianapolis,  Ind.,  April  4,  1906. 
Attorney-General  Wm.  H.  Moody,  Washington,  D.  C. : 

My  Dear  Sir — I  want  to  congratulate  you  on  your  speech 
before  Judge  Humphrey  in  Chicago.  While  it  may  be 
late  to  do  it,  I  want  to  say  that  I  think  I  understand  your 
position,  and  I  think  you  understand  it;  against  the  pack- 
ers' combination  in  Chicago,  yet  there  are  things  that  you 
are  not  as  familiar  with,  possibly,  as  I  am. 

I  rode  with  Nelson  Morris,  the  head  of  the  Nelson  Mor- 
ris firm,  through  Indiana  more  than  forty  years  ago,  buy- 
ing stock;  I  saw  the  father  of  the  young  Chicago  Swifts 
keeping  butcher  shop  in  New  England  thirty  years  ago,  and 
I  know  that  the  real  Swift  is  E.  C.  Swift,  and  always,  has 
been,  in  Boston,  and  that  where  there  were  ten  to  twenty 
separate  packing  houses  in  New  England  twenty  years  ago, 
they  are  all  owned  now  by  the  Swifts,  while  they  are  all 
running  under  their  original  names. 

The  Chicago  combination  is  not  a  marker  beside  the 
combination  which  we  have  here  in  Indianapolis.  Forty 
years  ago  Kingan  &  Co.  started  a  packing  house  here,  or- 
ganized later  on  at  Belfast,  Ireland,  located  them  about 
a  half  mile  of  a  railroad,  known  as  the  White  River  Val- 
ley Railroad;  crushed  out  and  later  took  in  a  packing 
house  knoAvn  as  the  Moore  Packing  Company,  located  on 
the  stock  yards  company's  ground;  crushed  out  and  took 
in  another  packing  house,  known  as  the  Coffin-Fletcher 
Company,  which  was  a  strong  competitor  thirty  or  forty 
years  ago,  which  is  now  located  on  the  stock  yards  ground, 
and  is  running  the  two  of  them  under  the  original  names. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  213 

The  old  Fletcher,  who  is  dead,  was  an  uncle  of  Jesse  Over- 
street,  congressman,  and  the  young  Fletcher  is  a  first  cousin 
of  his,  and  is  getting  $1,500  a  year  salary  as  president  of  the 
Coffin-Fletcher  Company,  in  the  packing  house  that  his 
father  once  owned  and  operated  before  it  was  crushed  out. 

Overstreet  is  so  busily  engaged  in  other  matters  that 
he  has  no  knowledge  of  these  facts;  Senator  Beveridge  is 
so  busily  engaged  getting  his  Western  territories  made  into 
States,  and  Vice-President  Fairbanks  is  so  busily  engaged 
getting  the  nomination  for  President,  and  they  have  got  a 
district  attorney  here  that  is  so  busily  engaged  as  a  political 
boss,  who  is  a  ward-heeler,  that  none  of  them  know  of  this 
combination  going  on  here  in  Indianapolis.  Kingan  &  Co. 
owned  a  few  years  ago  the  Reed  Bros.  Packing  Company,  in 
Kansas  City,  which  burned  down  a  few  years  ago,  and  two 
of  the  Reed  brothers  ran  away  after  being  indicted  by 
the  United  States  grand  jury  for  violation  of  the  interstate 
commerce  law,  and  stayed  in  Europe  several  years  to  evade 
the  penitentiary.     One  of  them  is  here  now. 

Kingans  not  only  control  the  packing  houses  here,  but 
they  control  the  stock  yards,  which  sell  20,000  bushels  of 
corn  for  ever^^  10,000  bushels  they  buy  (and  the  books  will 
show  it)  by  giving  short  weights;  buy  one  hundred  tons 
of  hay  and  sell  three  hundred  tons,  giving  about  30  pounds 
to  the  100.  These  are  facts  which  I  will  substantiate  by 
their  own  books. 

There  can  be  a  bigger  exposure  made  by  showing  the 
manner  in  which  the  stock  yards  company  and  the  Kingan 
packing  house  are  operating  in  Indianapolis,  taking  the 
products  of  the  farmers  from  the  larger  part  of  Indiana 
and  central  Illinois,  some  from  Ohio  and  some  from  Ken- 


214  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

tucky.  The  stock  yards  common  stock  a  few  years  ago  was 
worth  60  cents.  It  is  now  worth  $1.70.  They  have  put  out 
a  million  dollars  common  and  pay  the  dividends  by  short 
weights  and  exorbitant  charges.  Kingans  bill  all  of  their 
products  out  on  the  White  River  Valley  Railroad,  which  is 
only  a  switch  running  to  their  packing  house,  and  issue 
their  own  bills  of  lading,  and,  if  I  understand  it  right,  they 
charge  about  15  to  20  per  cent,  of  the  seaboard  rate  as  the 
originating  road. 

Kingans  are  probably  slaughtering  more  hogs  than  any 
one  large  house  in  the  country,  in  their  packing  house  here, 
in  addition  to  their  Moore  and  Coffin-Fletcher  packing 
houses  here.  I  can  see  their  wagons  drive  across  the  street 
from  my  office  and  sell  meat  to  a  grocer,  and  a  few  minutes 
later  I  see  the  Moore  wagon  and  later  the  Coffin-Fletcher 
wagon,* all  of  the  stuff  coming  out  of  the  same  refrigerator. 

Of  course,  I  am  what  is  knowii  as  a  dead  one.  I  give  you 
as  reference.  Chief  Justice  of  the  Court  of  Claims,  Stanton 
J.  Peele,  Congressman  Alexander  from  Buffalo,  W.  W. 
Dudley.    They  Imew  me  when  I  was  a  live  one. 

The  stock  yards  company  charge  7  cents  per  head,  what 
is  known  as  yardage,  for  weighing  hogs,  5  cents  for  sheep, 
and  20  cents  for  cattle,  which  is  exorbitant.  They  have 
nothing  but  a  few  sheds  and  the  ground.  The  original  cost 
was  less  than  $500,000  for  the  Belt  Railroad  and  the  stock 
yards,  and  they  have  leased  the  Belt  Railroad  for  a  term  of 
999  years  to  the  Union  Railway  Company,  which  Judge 
Baker  holds  was  a  sale. 

It  would  seem  that  there  might  be  something  done  in  the 
way  of  regulating  the  charges  in  all  of  the  stock  yards. 
Illinois  has  two,  the  largest  and  the  second  largest  stock 


With  the  Beef  Trust  215 

yards  in  the  country.  The  stock  yards  here  have  always 
been  able  to  lobby  the  legislature,  and  the  same  in  Illinois, 
and  they  manipulate  so  that  they  pay  taxes  on  less  than 
$150,000,  and  pay  dividends  on  something  like  $3,000,000. 
Yours  very  truly, 

R.  R.  SHIEL. 
P.  S. — Since  dictating  this  letter  some  days  ago,  I  see, 
that  E.  C.  Swift  has  died.  He  was  the  financier  of  the 
Swift  company.  Thirty  years  ago  he  was  a  poor  man.  I 
see  he  left  only  $10,000,000.  Had  he  lived  twenty  years 
longer  and  had  no  obstacles  put  in  his  way,  he  would  have 
owned  practically  the  United  States. 

R.  R.  SHIEL. 


Indianapolis,  Ind.,  April,  1906. 
Gov.  Charles  B.  Deneen,  Springfield,  III. : 

My  Dear  Sir — I  see  that  you  are  calling  an  extra  ses- 
sion of  the  legislature  on  a  very  important  matter,  a  pri- 
mary election.  I  have  been  in  politics  for  more  than  forty 
years,  and  I  understand  the  importance  of  having  an  hon- 
est primary. 

To  my  mind  there  is  a  matter  of  vast  deal  more  impor- 
tance to  the  farmers  of  Illinois  which  needs  a  special  legis- 
lation, and  that  is  a  legislation  of  the  stock  yards  question. 
You  have  the  largest  stock  yards  in  the  world,  in  Chicago, 
in  your  State,  and  also,  almost  the  second  largest  in  the 
world,  at  East  St.  Louis,  in  your  State.  They  are  collecting 
8  cents  per  head  off  of  the  farmers '  hogs,  25  cents  off  of  his 
cattle,  6  cents  off  of  his  sheep  and  50  cents  to  $1  off  of  his 
horses.  They  sell  the  corn  in  these  yards  to  the  farmers  at 
about  200  per  cent,  profit,  and  they  sell  the  hay  at  more 


216  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

than  300  per  cent,  profit.  They  emploj^  men  at  very  low 
salaries.  Stock  yards  have  nothing  but  ground,  and  a  few 
sheds  with  an  exchange  building,  all  cheaply  constructed. 
They  pay  dividends  on  millions  upon  millions  of  watered 
stock — yes,  thin  water,  if  it  is  properly  looked  after  by  the 
powers. 

You  can  properly  take  this  up  in  your  State,  as  you 
have  larger  stock  yards  than  any  of  the  other  States.  If  it 
is  not  taken  up  in  your  State  it  will  be  taken  up  in  some 
other  State,  and  possibly  in  Washington.  A  special  session 
of  the  legislature  called  on  this  question  would  be  in  keep- 
ing with  the  popular  sentiment  throughout  the  country,  and 
there  is  nothing  to  my  mind  which  would  render  greater 
service  to  the  farmer,  and  would  be  as  far-reaching — yes, 
farther  reaching  than  any  primary  legislation. 

You  knew  me  fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago,  I  know  you 
now.  I  give  you  as  reference  Leonard  Small,  who  is  treas- 
urer of  your  state,  and  I  own  the  stock  yards  on  his  farm  at 
Kankakee.  I  could  give  you  also  Senator  CuUom,  as  I  have 
spoken  on  the  same  platform  with  him,  time  and  again, 
more  than  twenty  jnears  ago.  He  was  once  a  chief  lieuten- 
ant of  mine  at  the  Minneapolis  convention. 

I  write  this  letter  in  confidence.  You  can  take  this  up 
with  your  friend,  Len  Small,  and  he  will  tell  you  who  I  am. 
They  are  driving  me  out  of  your  state  with  the  stock  yards 
I  have  had  leased  at  Kankakee,  and  the  big  stock  yards  are 
the  ones  who  are  doing  it.  I  am  responsible  for  any  charge 
I  make.  At  Kankakee  I  furnish  yardage,  commission  and 
feed  for  less  than  one-fourth  charged  at  Chicago,  giving 
full  measure  of  com  or  hay. 

Stock  yards  can  be  operated  with  a  big  profit  on  the  cost 


With  the  Beef  Tkust  217 

at  3  cents  yardage  on  hogs,  6  or  8  cents  on  cattle,  2  cents  on 
sheep,  and  20  cents  on  horses,  and  the  feed  can  be  furnished 
at  25  to  30  per  cent  profit.  I  understand  that  the  Chicago 
yards  are  owned  largely  by  an  English  .syndicate.  That, 
however,  you  can  look  into  and  s^et  the  desired  information. 
I  also  think  I  fully  understand  how  the  legislature  has  been 
handled  in  your  State,  and  also  in  this  State,  on  this  stock 
yards  proposition. 

Yours  very  truly, 

R.  R.  SHIEL. 


Indianapolis,  Tnd.,  June  7, 1906. 
Hon.  E.  D.  Crumpacker,  Congressman,  Washington,  D.  C. : 

My  Dear  Sir — Your  letter  of  the  5th  at  hand,  and  the 
contents  of  the  same  noted.  I  fully  agree  with  you  on  the 
importance  of  the  right  kind  of  a  bill — one  that  will  hold 
good  against  the  packers. 

There  is  not  one-half  of  one  per  cent,  of  the  product  in 
Indiana,  or  Illinois,  but  what  make  wholesome  food  if  they 
are  fed  sufficiently.  But  the  old  dairies  and  what  is  known 
as  canners,  picked  up  over  the  country,  should  not  be  per- 
mitted to  be  sold  after  they  are  slaughtered  and  mixed  in, 
then  adulterated  to  make  them  taste  good,  and  canned,  to 
break  down  the  price  of  the  honest  producers  of  the  me- 
dium and  high  grade  stock. 

I  have,  beyond  a  doubt,  handled  $100,000,000  of  the 
farm  products  for,  it  is  safe  to  say,  one  hundred  and  fifty 
different  butchers,  from  Portland,  Me.,  to  Richmond,  Va., 
in  the  coast  towns;  always  buying  the  best  grades,  never 
buying  what  is  known  as  the  low  grades.     I  have  bought 


218  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

as  high  as  $65,000  stock  in  a  day  for  Nelson  Morris.  I  have 
bought  for  practically  all  of  the  towns  in  New  England, 
and  all  of  the  packers  and  butchers,  and  today  there  is  but 
one  packing  housg  in  New  England,  and  that  is  the  Swift 
house.  All  have  been  absorbed,  either  by  killing  them  off,  or 
by  buying  them  and  putting  them  out  of  business.  The  last 
one,  a  sausage  maker  at  Springfield,  who  made  high  grade 
sausage,  gave  them  all  kinds  of  trouble,  and  they  gave  him 
an  enormous  price  to  get  him  out  of  the  way,  so  that  he 
wouldn't  be  a  competitor. 

If  you  make  an  argument,  will  you  please  put  the  ques- 
tion, "What  is  refined  lard?"  Refined  lard  is  the  white 
grease  that  they  get  out  of  the  dead  animals,  afterwards 
adulterate  and  fix  up  to  sell,  and  pass  it  as  a  second  or  even 
a  first  grade  lard.  A  very  large  per  cent,  of  the  people 
think  that  refined  lard  is  better  than  kettle  rendered  lard, 
that  all  of  the  country  butchers  make.  No  grades  of  lard 
are  as  high  sellers  as  the  kettle  rendered. 

There  is  no  bigger  fraud  than  the  fraud  of  the  adul- 
terated food,  and  no  one  is  a  greater  sufferer,  as  I  said  be- 
fore, than  the  one  who  raises  the  medium  and  high  grades, 
as  they  never  get  enough  for  their  stuff.  The  original  cost 
for  a  steer  at  the  present  prices  might  be  5%  to  6  cents 
per  cwt.  It  will  malve  62  to  64  pounds  dressed  to  the  cwt. 
The  original  cost  of  an  old  canner  that  is  so  poor  that  it 
can  hardly  walk  might  be  II/2  to  2  cents  per  pound,  and  he 
won't  make  over  40  to  45  pounds  dressed  to  the  hundred, 
so  you  readily  see  there  is  only  about  4  cents  difference 
profit  and  not  over  2  cents  when  you  count  the  net  weight 
of  the  original  cost  of  the  packer,  but  when  you  go  to  sell  it, 
it  undersells  the  good  stuff,  and  makes  a  big  profit  off  of 


With  the  Beef  Trust  219 

the  low  grade  stuff.  It  is  not  fit  food  for  a  buzzard  to  eat. 
Ten  to  fifteen  years  ago  they  shipped  from  Pennsylvania 
and  New  Jersey  the  low  grade  stuff,  dairies  and  canners, 
that  wasn't  fit  to  kill,  to  Chicago  packers  to  be  canned. 

I  was  put  out  of  business  here  by  the  combine,  an  or- 
ganization of  packers  and  stock  yards,  because  I  paid  a  big 
price  for  the  good  stuff  and  would  not  buy  the  common  at 
all.  I  bought  six  months  in  the  year  eighty  to  ninety  per 
cent,  of  all  of  the  good  stock  that  came  to  Indianapolis  for 
more  than  twenty  years.  The  other  six  months  I  bought 
thirty  to  fifty  per  cent.  Six  months  in  the  year  the  East 
was  supplied  by  their  own  productions,  largely.  The  other 
six  months  they  did  not  supply  them. 

I  had  a  customer  in  every  city  in  the  anthracite  coal 
district  and  they  paid  the  best  prices  and  wanted  the  very 
best  stock.  They  have  not  been  able  to  drive  out  the  local 
butchers  in  Pennsylvania  up  to  this  time,  while  they  have 
got  them  all  driven  out  of  Illinois,  practically,  and  very 
largely  in  Indiana,  by  buying  a  high  grade  of  stock  from 
Benton  county,  and  shipping  back  the  low  grade  product  to 
sell  to  the  local  trade. 

I  believe  that  the  government  ought  to  pay  the  inspec- 
tion; then  the  government  can  control  it.  I  read  a  long 
letter  from  Nelson  Morris  to  Leroy  Templeton  today.  Leroy 
Tcmpleton  has,  probably,  the  best  farm  in  the  State  of  In- 
diana. There  is  not  one-eighth  of  one  per  cent,  of  all  the 
stock  he  markets  that  is  not  high  grade.  Nelson  Morris  ap- 
peals to  him  on  the  ground  that  this  bill  will  ruin  the  whole 
cattle  industry.  But  Templeton  does  not  agree  with  him ; 
no  more  than  I  do.  It  will  ruin  the  dealer  of  adulterated 
product,  and  surely  reduce  Nelson  Morris'  profit.     I  sup- 


220  Twenty  Ybaks  in  Hell 

pose  I  have  bought  five  hundred  boat  loads  of  cattle  for 
Nelson  Morris,  also  bought  canners  and  butchers. 

You  might  ask  the  packers  what  they  do  with  the  ones 
that  die  in  the  yards,  or  what  Butcher  of  the  New  York 
Central  does  with  the  lard  out  of  his  dead  hogs,  or  O  'Don- 
ell  of  Pittsburg,  Sam  AUerton's  lieutenant,  what  he  does 
with  his  dead  hogs,  or  Sam  Rauh,  president  of  the  stock 
yards  in  Indianapolis  and  fertilizer,  what  he  does  with  his 
dead  hogs,  or  the  refined  lard  that  may  come  out  of  them. 

There  is  no  one  who  will  go  back  to  congress  this  year 
that  is  not  in  favor  of  the  strictest  kind  of  restriction  on 
this  greatest  fraud  the  world  has  ever  known — the  adul- 
teration of  the  meat  product.  Beveridge  has  stubbed  his 
toe  by  saying  that  he  is  willing  to  let  these  men  who  have 
poisoned  millions  of  people  with  their  unwholesome  food, 
not  be  disturbed  with  their  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars 
that  they  have  accumulated  by  doing  so,  call  it  bygones  and 
whitewash  them  with  asking  them  to  be  good  hereafter. 
Pardon  me  this  long  letter.  Still  you  couldn't  expect  me  to 
give  my  forty  years '  experience  in  this  short  space. 
Yours  very  truly. 

R.  R.  SHIEL. 

June  10th. 
Mr.  E.  G.  Swift,  Boston,  Mass.  -. 

Dear  Sir — I  write  to  you  personally,  as  I  feel  that  the 
proper  way  for  me  to  do,  at  this  time,  is  to  deal  directly 
with  the  men  who  are  fully  in  charge. 

The  matter  which  I  want  to  particularly  call  your  at- 
tention to,  is  the  stock  yards  I  have  leased  at  Kankakee, 
Illinois,  from  the  Indiana,  Illinois  &  Iowa  Railroad,  with 


With  the  Beef  Trust  221 

the  lease  ninning  for  thirteen  years  yet.  The  first  six 
months,  before  th<e  combination  of  the  railroads  came 
against  me  and  put  up  my  freights  five  cents  per  hundred, 
I  did  a  very,  very  satisfactory  business,  showing  a  profit  to 
myself  and  also  to  my  customers  in  the  East  that  took  the 
output  and  to  my  country  customers  who  brought  the  stock 
in.  I  had  something  over  one  hundred  customers  from  the 
very  best  sections  of  Illinois,  all  of  whom  were  highly 
pleased  and  would  have  continued  and  the  business  in- 
creased, had  it  not  been  for  the  discriminations  against  me. 
Later  the  railroad  that  I  had  the  yards  leased  from  refused 
to  permit  me  to  "mill"  anything  in  transit. 

I  have  it  from  a  very  reliable  authority  that  your  people 
want  these  yards,  and  have  had  negotiations  with  the  rail- 
roads for  them.  I  have  been  notified  by  the  rail- 
roads that  they  would  cancel  my  lease  and  for  me  to  vacate 
the  yards,  a  thing  that  you  are  no  doubt  aware  of  and  a 
thing  which  I  do  not  expect  to  do.  I  have  got  things  in 
shape  where  I  would  much  prefer  not  to  get  into  a  lawsuit 
if  any  adjustment  can  be  made.  My  attorneys  want  me 
to  bring  suit  against  the  railroad  company  and  get  an  in- 
junction, compelling  them  to  permit  me  to  ''mill"  the  hogs 
in  transit,  the  same  as  they  do  in  Pittsburg  and  practically 
everywhere  else.  This  of  cou'rse  will  bring  up  an  impor- 
tant question,  one  which  has  never  been  decided  by  the 
interstate  commerce  commission  or  by  the  United  States 
courts.  The  fact  is  there  is  no  doubt  as  to  getting  a  deci- 
sion in  my  favor,  as  every  kind  of  product  has  been  milled 
at  all  points  and  my  attorneys  say  there  is  no  court  will  hold 
that  the  hogs  cannot  be  milled  the  same  as  the  grain.  They 
have  refused  to  let  me  substitute  ten  hogs  to  make  up  the 


222  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

weight  where  ten  hogs  had  died  coming  in,  and  have  gone  so 
far  as  to  confine  me  to  the  actual  count ;  if  two  hogs  died 
and  it  showed  100  billed  out  at  the  shipping  point,  I  should 
lose  the  billing,  if  I  did  not  have  the  exact  number  go  out 
that  were  billed. 

I  have  some  two  hundred  and  fifty  clients  from  the 
''Farm  to  the  Packing  House"  at  one  time,  and  there  are 
one  hundred  or  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  them  that  I  could 
handle  now,  if  I  had  the  cars.  They  are  thoroughly  hon- 
est, as  I  know  the  honest  ones  and  they  know  me  well. 
When  you  became  owner  of  the  Squire  house,  the  system  was 
changed  whereby  they  saw  fit  to  get  rid  of  me.  You  kept 
one  man  I  had,  who  I  knew  would  render  you  good  service 
and  was  competent,  that  is  Johnston.  But  you  must  re- 
member that  he  got  all  of  his  ideas  from  me  of  the  Farm 
to  the  Packing  House.  I  doubt  not  whether  you  have  got 
twenty  out  of  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  customers,  that  you 
are  continuing  to  do  business  with. 

If  you  would  buy  some  hogs  from  me  at  anywhere  near 
a  relative  price  to  what  they  sell  at  in  Chicago  or  Indian- 
apolis, I  would  be  able  to  forward  you  hogs  on  a  commis- 
sion basis  from  Kankakee  and  also  from  countrj^  points, 
using  your  cars.  You  fully  understand  the  position  I  am  in 
and  it  is  useless  to  go  over  the  matter.  It  may  be  possible 
that  your  people  do  not  want  to  do  any  business  with  me 
whatever.  If  you  do  not  then  I  would  be  glad  if  you  would 
say  so ;  then  I  will  go  forward  and  make  the  necessary  ar- 
rangements with  other  parties.  I  would  not  want  to  take  on  a 
lot  of  clients  in  the  East  and  promise  to  furnish  them  reg- 
ularly when  I  could  make  arrangements  with  houses  like 
yours  that  use  all  kinds  at  anywhere  near  satisfactory 
prices. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  223 

I  have  been  kicked  around  from  pillar  to  post  by  a  com- 
bination here,  and  I  thought  when  I  leased  Kankakee  I  had 
a  place  where  I  Was  in  full  control  and  was  able  to  know 
that  I  was  giving  honest  weights,  and  that  the  hogs  had  not 
been  salted  in  the  country  and  filled  with  water  in  the  vari- 
ous stock  yards  before  my  clients  could  get  them ;  you  un- 
derstand I  buy  the  hogs  weighed  off  of  the  cars  without  feed 
or  water  and  give  them  to  my  Eastern  clients  at  the  weights 
I  get  before  they  are  watered  and  fed,  also  that  the  parties 
East  would  get  the  hogs,  when  they  went  direct,  in  the  cars 
I  put  them  in,  without  having  them  go  through  any  stock 
yards  where  there  might  be  mixes.  While  I  was  in  New 
York  about  a  year  ago,  Mr.  Dutcher  said  that  it  was  im- 
possible for  him  to  get  keys  to  their  pens  in  the  stock  yards 
but  what  the  stock  yards  people  would  get  duplicates  of 
them,  and  said  that  they  could  not  help  mixes,  no  matter 
how  closely  they  were  looked  after  in  making  transfers  in 
stock  yards. 

Let  me  hear  from  you  at  as  early  a  date  as  possible,  as 
I  expect  to  make  some  change  in  the  program  at  Kankakee, 
if  I  have  to  ask  the  court  to  grant  me  an  injunction,  which 
I  can  get  in  fifteen  days,  to  permit  the  milling  in  transit. 
This  will  bring  up  the  question.  Also  will  ask  the  court  to 
pass  on  the  railroads  for  putting  up  the  freights  five  cents 
per  cwt.  in  the  freight  groups  tributary  to  Kankakee  while 
they  made  no  changes  anywhere  in  the  country,  leaving 
the  freights  at  Peoria,  St.  Louis,  Chicago  and  Indianapolis 
stand  where  they  were.  My  attorneys  say  that  this  is  a  di- 
rect discrimination  against  my  Kankakee  stock  yards. 
Yours  very  truly. 

R.  R.  SHIEL. 


224  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

June  18,  1906. 
Hon.  Jas.  W.  Wadsworth,  Washmgton,  D.  C: 

My  Dear  Sir — Pardon  me  for  writing  you.  I  have  met 
you  frequently  and  I  feel  certain  that  I  knew  your  father 
in  the  war.  I  note  the  position  you  take  on  the  meat  in- 
spection bill.  I  suppose  you  are  aware  that  several  years 
ago  they  shipped  the  canners  from  New  Jersey,  and  possi- 
bly from  New  York  State  to  Chicago  to  be  canned,  and  get 
the  calves  out  of  them  for  canned  chicken.  I  understand 
later  they  are  canning  them  in  the  East. 

I  have  bought  probably  as  much  high  grade  live  stock  as 
any  man  living,  in  the  last  forty  years.  I  have  never  dealt 
in  the  low  grades.  I  know  that  you  make  your  cattle  on 
the  farms  good,  and  I  assume  that  the  ones  off  of  your 
ranches  in  the  West  are  not  marketed  until  they  are  good. 

The  producers  of  the  medium,  the  good,  and  the  prime 
live  stock  do  not  get  enough  for  their  product  that  comes 
out  of  their  cattle,  and  the  one  who  markets  the  canners  and 
low  grades  gets  two  prices  for  his. 

This,  of  course,  I  think  you  understand,  and  that  the 
inspection  cannot  be  too  strict  for  the  one  who  markets  the 
medium  and  the  high  grades,  which  all  makes  wholesome 
food.  The  general  public  demands  that  there  shall  be  a 
strict  inspection. 

I  presume  I  had  as  much  to  do  as  any  one  in  the  country, 
that  wasn't  a  member  of  congress  during  Harrison's  admin- 
istration, in  getting  the  present  law  through,  which  is  bet- 
ter than  no  inspection,  but  is  far  from  being  perfect.  There 
can  be  but  two  classes  of  people  opposing  an  inspection  bill. 
One  is  the  producer  that  wants  to  put  his  unwholesome  stock 


With  the  Beef  Trust  225 

on  the  market,  and  the  other  is  the  manufacturer,  who 
wants  to  manufacture  and  adulterate  it.  The  packer  makes 
five  times  the  profit  on  the  low  grade  stuff  that  he  does  on 
the  high  grade. 

I  presume  you  are  aware  that  they  have  never  been  able 
to  kill  off  the  Pennsylvania  farmer  as  they  have  the  New 
York  farmer,  with  their  dressed  beef,  yet  they  have  crippled 
him  some.  At  one  time  I  had  as  many  as  twenty-five  clients 
in  your  State.  Today  I  have  got  practically  none,  as  most 
of  them  have  been  either  absorbed  or  killed  off. 

I  am  unable  to  account  why  you  and  Cannon,  who  rep- 
resent districts  that  raise  good  stock,  and  especially  Cannon, 
in  whose  district  they  raise  nothing  but  high  grade  stock, 
should  not  be  in  favor  of  strict  inspection. 

I  have  been  an  inspector  of  packing  houses  for  forty 
years.  In  fact,  every  year  when  I  visit  the  East  they  all 
want  to  show  me  the  improvements  they  have  made.  The 
Eastman  house  in  New  York  and  the  Squire  house  in  Bos- 
ton are  two  that  always  killed  the  high  grade  stock  and 
killed  no  low  grades.  They  both  have  been  killed  off  and 
absorbed,  and  are  now  operated  by  the  Swifts.  No  house 
should  be  permitted  after  it  has  been  absorbed  to  manufac- 
ture and  sell  low  grade  product  on  the  reputation  of  the 
house  that  had  always  sold  the  high  grade  product. 

May  I  ask  you  what  you  know  of  stock  yards  and  their 
connections  with  fertilizing  establishments,  and  have  you 
had  any  of  your  good  cattle  swapped  for  poor  ones  in  the 
stock  yards?  A  few  years  ago,  while  in  New  York  trying 
to  collect  claims  off  of  Dutcher,  who  i»  the  whole  thing  in 
the  New  York  Central  live  stock  business  and  has  been  for 


[15] 


226  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

years,  lie  said  there  was  no  such  thing  as  honest  stock  yards, 
that  he  had  had  thousands  of  keys  made  for  the  stock  yards 
and  the  next  day  there  would  be  hundreds  of  duplicates  of 
them.  Stock  yards  and  fertilizers  should  be  separated  from 
packing  houses  and  watched  that  they  do  not  make  the 
white  grease  out  of  dead  hogs  into  refined  lard.  With  kind 
regards  and  best  wishes. 

Your  very  truly. 

R.  R.  SHIEL. 


Items  from  my  Newspaper  Scrapbook. 


R.  R.  SHIEL  SHUT  OUT. 


TROUBLE  AT  THE  STOCK  YARDS  OVER  PURCHASE  OF  HOGS. 


LIVE  STOCK  EXCHANGE  MAKES  RULES  AS  TO  PURCHASE  AND 
V^EIGHING  OP  HOGS  WHICH  THE  FIRM  OF  R.  R.  SHIEL  & 
CO.  REFUSE  TO  ABIDE  BY  AND  IT  IS  SHUT  OUT  OF  THE 
MARKET THE  FIRM  ISSUES  A  STATEMENT  TO  ITS  CUSTOM- 
ERS AND  THE  PUBLIC  GENERALLY. 


A  controversy  has  arisen  at  the  stock  yards  between  the 
firm  of  R.  R.  Shiel  &  Co.,  purchasing  agents,  and  the  Live 
Stock  Exchange,  composed  of  the  other  buyers  and  sellers, 
which  has  resulted  in  the  passage  of  a  resolution  by  the  ex- 
change shutting  Shiel  &  Co.  out  of  the  market.  The  trou- 
ble has  arisen  over  certain  rules  laid  down  by  the  exchange 
to  its  members  regarding  the  purchase  and  weighing  of 
hogs  which  R.  R.  Shiel  &  Co.  refuses  to  abide  by,  claiming 
the  exchange  is  in  effect  a  combination.  Similar  trouble 
has  been  experienced  at  Kansas  City,  Chicago  and  Omaha 
where  the  matter  was  taken  into  the  federal  courts. 

R.  R.  Shiel  has  been  in  business  at  the  stock  yards  since 
they  were  built,  over  twenty  years  ago,  and  in  that  time  has 
done  business  aggregating  $50,000,000.  His  average  yearly 
business  is  $2,500,000.  He  has  been  buying  on  order  for 
eastern  packers  in  fifteen  states  in  the  East  and  frequently 
his  daily  purchases  are  sent  to  that  many  states.    Mr.  Shiel 

(227) 


228  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

publishes  below  a  statement  to  his  customers  and  the  public 
generally  concerning  the  controversy  and  his  future  plans. 
The  statement  follows: 

STATEMENT  BY  SHIEL  &  CO. 

To  Our  Many  Customers,  Friends,  and  to  WJiom  It  May 

Concern : 

Dear  Sirs — Last  week  we  were  in  business  and  today 
we  find  ourselves  out  of  business.  In  June  we  bought  $200,- 
000  worth  of  stock,  in  July  $290,000  and  in  August  $255,- 
000,  and  today  we  are  not  able  to  do  any  business  as  the 
salesmen  have  refused  to  sell  to  us.  We  have  been  wiped 
out  of  business  by  the  resolution  of  a  combine  whose  de- 
mands, were  we  to  meet  them,  would  often  compel  us  to 
do  business  at  a  greater  loss  than  our  commissions 
amounted  to. 

This  is  the  second  time  I  have  been  wiped  out  of  busi- 
ness, and  practically  the  same  cause  that  wiped  us  out  the 
first  time  wipes  us  out  now;  that  is,  that  we  would  not 
buy  common  hogs  that  shrink  25  per  cent,  at  the  same  price 
or  within  5  cents  per  hundred  of  the  best  hogs  that  only 
shrink  17  to  18  per  cent.  There  ought  to  be  a  difference  in 
any  market  of  15  to  25  cents  per  hundred,  as  the  good  ones 
will  cost  that  much  less  dressed  off  the  hooks  if  they  are 
bought  at  the  same  price  as  the  common  ones. 

Eighteen  or  twenty  years  ago  I  was  in  the  commission 
business,  a  third  partner  in  a  firm  of  three.  I  was  super- 
intending the  buying  department,  and  my  partners  super- 
intending the  selling,  and  we  had  the  same  contention  that 
we  have  today ;  that  is  that  my  partner  wanted  me  to  buy 
the  common  ones  of  him  at  the  same  price  I  was  bmnng  the 
good  ones  of  him  and  others.  Then  we  had  a  market,  every- 
thing sold  on  its  merits.  The  feeder  that  bred  and  fed  the 
fine  hogs  got  a  price  for  them,  and  the  one  who  fed  them 
on  insane  hospital  and  city  slop,  which  will  shrink  5  per 
cent,  more  from  gross  to  net,  making  a  difference  of  15  to 


With  the  Beef  Trust  229 

25  cents  per  hundred,  got  that  much  less  for  his  hogs. 
That  is  true  today  of  other  markets,  but  it  is  not  true  of 
ours. 

Fourteen  years  ago  last  June  I  was  nominated  for  treas- 
urer of  the  State  of  Indiana,  and  to  my  utter  astonishment 
my  partners  met  in  less  than  a  month  afterward  without 
my  knowledge  or  consent  and  resolved  that  if  I  did  not  stay 
there  and  quit  politics  they  would  put  me  out  of  business, 
which  they  did,  and  in  July,  1884,  I  found  myself  just 
where  I  am  today — out  of  business.  Then  every  man  did 
business  as  he  ^dshed.  We  used  to  buy  hogs  at  $6  per  dou- 
ble deck  then,  and  for  a  number  of  years  the  selling  charges 
were  $3  to  $4  per  single  deck,  and  $6  per  double  deck. 

Now  what  has  changed  the  condition  of  things?  Let 
me  explain.  After  I  was  defeated  for  treasurer  in  Novem- 
ber, I  wanted  to  get  back  into  business  if  I  could,  and  I 
took  the  buying  side  of  the  trade,  and  I  have  never  sold  a 
carload  since.  I  had  friends  then,  which  I  believe  I  have 
now,  who  put  me  back  into  business  notwithstanding  the 
resolution  that  put  me  out,  and  in  less  than  two  months  I 
had  every  one  of  my  old  customers  at  the  buying  end,  and 
more.  Not  long  after  this  a  few  commission  men  got  to- 
gether and  organized  what  is  known  as  the  Live  Stock  Ex- 
change, with  the  purpose  of  dictating  how  one  another 
should  do  business,  and  they  commenced  putting  the  sell- 
ing commissions  up,  and  restrictions  on  every  man  doing 
business  in  the  yards,  until  they  resolved  that  no  man 
should  do  business  at  the  yards  unless  he  be  a  member  of 
the  exchange,  or  that  they  would  not  do  business  with  a 
man  who  was  not  a  member.  Then  they  commenced  shap- 
ing the  market  to  fit  their  resolutipns,  and  as  we  would  not 
accord  with  their  resolutions,  they  have  been  shaping  to 
put  us  out  of  business  ever  since,  and  last  Friday  they  re- 
solved not  to  sell  us  anything,  and  last  Saturday  they  re- 
fused to  weigh  to  us  after  we  bought  them  and  refused  to 
sell  to  us  when  we  were  bidding  5  cents  more  than  anyone 
else  was  paying.     They  forced  every  man  doing  business 


230  Twenty  Yeaks  if  Hell 

there  into  the  exchange  but  us,  while,  in  fact,  they  put 
us  in  without  our  knowledge  or  consent,  and  afterward  we 
got  out  of  it. 

They  have  manipulated  the  paper  and  market  reports 
going  out  of  here  so  that  it  won't  cover  any  purchases  we 
make,  for  the  purpose  of  breaking  us  down  with  our  cus- 
tomers East. 

ONE  day's  transactions. 

We  will  cite  you  the  facts  of  last  Friday.  We  bought 
one  deck  of  fancy  light  hogs,  with  eight  big  heavy  hogs  out, 
at  $4.10,  of  Middlesworth,  Benson,  Nave  &  Co.,  and  another 
load  of  fancy  light  from  the  same  firm  at  4.071/2?  a^nd  an- 
other load  at  $4.05.  We  bought  of  Clark,  Wysong  &  Voris 
two  loads  at  $4,071/2.  We  bought  of  Tolin,  Totten,  Tibbs 
&  Co.  a  full  load  of  heavyweight  lights  at  $4.05,  and  of  the 
Capital  Live  Stock  Company  a  number  of  mixed  loads  at 
$4.05,  and  bought  of  other  firms  at  $4.05,  and  they  refused 
to  weigh  to  us.  They  met  that  same  afternoon  and  resolved 
that  these  prices  must  not  go  into  the  Live  Stock  Journal, 
and  dictated  to  this  paper  until  it  said  the  top  on  hogs  was 
$4.02%  and  showed  no  account  of  any  sale  being  over 
$4.02%.  The  fact  was  we  did  not  get  enough  fancy  light 
hogs,  and  would  have  been  glad  to  have  had  more  at  $4.05 
and  $4.07%.  This  same  paper  showed  there  were  no  as- 
sorted hogs  of  any  kind  over  130  pounds  average  sold  less 
than  $4  or  over  $4,021/0.  So  you  see  every  hog  that  day, 
taking  their  market  report,  sold  from  $4  to  $4.02%,  mak- 
ing only  2%  cents  difference  between  the  best  and  the 
poorest  hogs. 

Need  we  go  any  further  to  convince  the  most  ignorant 
man  that  it  is  not  an  honest  market  report  or  an  honest 
market?  We  have  yielded  point  after  point  to  their  de- 
mands, but  if  we  were  to  yield  to  this  demand  it  would  put 
us  out  of  business  entirely.  On  last  Tuesday  the  writer 
went  with  the  president  of  the  exchange.  He  had  a  num- 
ber of  hogs,  between  six  and  ten  loads.     He  priced  them 


With  the  Beef  Trust  231 

all  at  one  price.  In  them  he  had  hogs  that  were  bought 
for  speculation  by  a  man  working  in  his  employ — what  are 
known  as  wagon  hogs— and  he  had  several  loads  as  good  as 
come  to  market.  He  wanted  the  same  price  for  every  load 
of  them,  the  wagon  hogs  and  the  fine-bred  hogs.  I  bid 
him  5  cents  more  for  three  loads  of  his  light  hogs  than  he 
admitted  to  me  he  sold  them  for,  but  he  said  to  me  he  got 
off  all  his  hogs  at  the  same  price ;  the  wagon  hogs  that  the 
man  in  his  employ  bought,  that  would  shrink  25  per  cent, 
from  gross  to  net,  sold  at  the  same  price  that  the  fine  hogs 
brought  in  by  the  customers  from  Illinois  that  would  not 
shrink  18  per  cent.  He  invariably  asks  the  same  price  for 
his  whole  string  of  hogs.  I  have  bought  thousands  of  hogs 
from  him  at  prices  named,  and  named  the  price  when  I 
bought  them,  and  when  I  went  to  my  office  found  the  prices 
were  changed  on  the  tickets.  This  was  not  an  uncommon 
occurrence.  I  have  said  to  him  time  and  again  this  must 
not  occur,  changing  the  prices  from  what  they  were  bought 
at,  sometimes  marking  one  man  up  and  another  down.  This 
same  man  is  president  today,  dictating,  by  calling  a  meet- 
ing of  the  exchange  at  any  time  he  wishes,  to  take  action  on 
anything  that  doesn't  suit  his  wishes. 

WHO  THESE   MEN   ARE. 

Who  are  these  men  who  have  put  me  out  of  business? 
Most  of  them  honest  men,  but  poor,  weak,  ignorant  mortals, 
dictated  to  by  a  few.  There  are  about  seventy  members  of 
the  exchange,  as  I  understand,  many  of  whom  1  have  ren- 
dered great  service.  Three  of  them  have  been  my  confiden- 
tial typewriters  for  years,  another  one  my  bookkeeper  for 
years.  They  are  at  liberty  to  tell  any  crookedness  that  I 
have  ever  done.  Bear  with  me  until  I  tell  you  what  I 
have  done  for  a  few  of  them.  One  of  them  I  took  when  he 
was  getting  $10  per  month  and  advanced  him,  and  before 
he  was  twenty  he  was  getting  $50.  Another  I  took  when 
he  was  working  at  a  livery  stable,  advanced  him  the  money 


232  Twenty  Yeabs  in  Hell 

to  buy  a  lot,  and  made  him  pay  for  it  and  build  himself  a 
house  in  the  building  and  loan  association,  kept  him  until 
he  could  do  better  and  helped  him  to  do  better ;  an  honest 
man,  but  deluded  by  the  bosses.  Another  I  took  when  a 
boy,  paid  him  a  salars^  for  years,  put  him  in  business,  and 
he  cost  me  $1,000  and  T  paid  it;  another  I  gave  a  check 
for  $2,500  to  buy  an  interest  in  a  firm,  and  indorsed  him  at 
the  bank  for  the  amount  until  he  earned  the  money  and 
paid  it  out  individually.  Another  I  negotiated  a  trade  for 
wkereby  he  sold  an  interest  in  his  business  for  $3,000.  An- 
other I  gave  a  check  for  $3,000  to  keep  the  bank  from  clos- 
ing them  up  aiad  then  indorsed  them  in  bank  to  bridge 
them  over.  Another  who  came  to  me  at  a  critical  time 
when  it  looked  like  they  were  going  to  fail  and  said  he 
was  going  to  put  his  property  in  his  wife's  name,  and  I 
plead  with  him  not  to  do  it  and  indorsed  him  for  $4,000; 
and  another  I  negotiated  a  partnership  for  with  a  capitalist 
when  he  was  a  boy  and  put  him  in  business.  A  number  I 
have  given  my  check  to  to  bridge  them  over  for  a  day  in 
bank  for  from  $500  to  $2,000.  All  of  these  men — there  were 
none  of  them  I  could  say  were  dishonest  or  that  I  believed 
were  dishonest,  but  I  will  say  they  are  poor,  weak  mortals, 
and  they  show  the  ingratitude  of  man  when  they  turn  on 
me,  and  many  of  them  will  be  wanting  me  to  help  them 
again,  and  I  expect  I  will  have  to  do  it. 

GET   MARKETS  FROM   SHIEL. 

In  fact,  all  of  them  come  to  me  early  in  the  morning  to 
know  what  the  markets  are,  as  I  pay  for  early  telegrams 
from  other  markets,  and  have  for  years.  Kingan  &  Co.  are 
honest  competitors  of  ours,  excellent  gentlemen  and  our 
friends,  yet  they  beloni^  to  the  exchange.  They  for  some 
cause  buy  all  their  hogs  at  the  same  price,  scarcely  ever 
making  iVo  to  5  cents'  difference  between  the  best  and  the 
poorest  assorted  hogs.  We  don 't  know  why  they  do  busi- 
ness that  way,  and  it  is  none  of  our  business  why  they  do. 
It  is  a  question  if  We  have  not  bought  as  many  hogs  in  this 


With  the  Beef  Trust  238 

market  in  the  last  month  as  Kingan  &  Co.  did.  We  have 
customers  that  want  a  fine  bacon  hog  and  are  willing  to 
pay  for  it,  and  have  other  customers  that  want  fine  butcher 
hogs  and  are  willing  to  pay  for  them.  The  president  of  this 
exchange  has  said  to  us :  ' '  You  cannot  buy  a  light  hog  un- 
less you  buy  my  heavies,  and  you  can 't  buy  my  heavies  un- 
less you  buy  my  lights  and  wagon  hogs." 

We  feel  that  a  man  in  the  country  who  sends  in  a  load 
of  light  hogs  ought  to  have  them  sold  separately  and  on 
their  merits,  and  the  man  who  sends  in  grassy,  half -fatted 
or  slop-fed  hogs  ought  to  have  them  sold  on  their  merits. 
The  way  it  is  now  every  man  goes  into  a  pool,  and  the  man 
with  the  bad  ones  always  gets  the  best  of  it,  and  the  man 
with  the  good  ones  gets  the  worst  of  it. 

GOING  TO  START  ANEW. 

Now  we  have  to  start  into  business  anew,  and  we  ask  of 
the  country  shippers  to  either  bill  their  hogs  to  themselves, 
and  we  will  buy  their  hogs  of  them,  or  bill  them  to  us,  and 
we  will  sell  them  or  use  them  for  our  orders  at  $3  per  car, 
and  if  we  buy  them  of  the  shipper  we  will  have  them 
weighed  and  settle  their  charges  for  $2  per  car.  We  will 
either  buy  them  and  weigh  them  straight  with  a  dock,  or  we 
will  assort  them,  as  we  have  been  doing  heretofore.  We 
will  go  back  to  the  good  old  times  when  every  man  did  busi- 
ness on  his  own  hook  and  when  the  shipper  could  come  in 
and  sell  his  own  goods.  We  will  have  a  first-class  cattle 
man,  and  we  will  sell  cattle  at  just  half  the  commission 
charged  now  under  the  rules  of  the  exchange.  Our  buying 
commissions  remain  just  where  they  are,  at  $6  per  double- 
deck,  the  same  as  they  were  twenty  years  ago.  It  used  to 
be  $6  for  selling  and  $6  for  buying.  The  exchange  put  up 
the  selling  and  put  down  the  buying,  or  have  members  in 
it  who  are  offering  to  buy  at  $3  and  $4  per  double-deck 
now.  It  is  more  work  to  buy  a  load  of  hogs  than  it  is  to 
sell  them. 


234  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 


HOW  TO  SHIP   STOCK. 


In  billing  your  hogs  and  cattle  bill  them  all  to  New 
York  or  Boston  on  the  Big  Pour  system  west  of  here,  to  un- 
load at  Indianapolis,  care  R.  R.  Shiel  &  Co.  On  the  Penn- 
sylvania system  west  and  southwest  of  here  bill  them  to 
New  York,  Boston,  Philadelphia  or  Baltimore,  load  in  dou- 
ble-decks whenever  it  is  possible  to  do  so.  On  the  Pennsyl- 
vania system  use  Keystone  double-decks.  On  the  Big  Four 
system  use  Western  live  stock  exchange,  Central  Vermont. 
Swift's  live  stock  exchange  or  Mather  double-decks.  On 
the  I.,  D.  &  W.  bill  to  New  York  and  do  not  route  them  be- 
yond Indianapolis,  as  we  might  want  to  send  them  via  the 
Big  Four  or  the  Pennsylvania.  We  will  pay  all  telegrams 
sent  by  us,  you  pay  all  telegrams  sent  by  you,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  when  you  ask  the  market  we  will  send  the  answer 
collect,  or  when  we  notify  parties  of  shipment  we  send  them 
coUect. 

To  our  customers  East,  who  have  done  business  with  us 
for  years,  and  who  know  our  manner  of  doing  business,  we 
ask  you  to  be  patient  with  us  during  the  next  week  until 
such  time  as  our  friends  in  the  countrj^,  whose  hogs  we  have 
been  buying  through  other  parties,  will  send  enough  to  sup- 
ply our  Eastern  demand  or  come  in  themselves  and  sell 
them  to  us. 

The  hardest  demand  was  made  on  us  a  few  months  ago, 
when  they  asked  that  we  should  buy  just  as  Kingan's  buy 
them  and  weigh  them  all  in  one  draft.  The  rule  had  been 
before  that  if  we  bought  hogs  we  could  cut  out  the  heaviest 
and  weigh  them  to  one  man  and  the  lights  to  another ;  that 
we  could  weigh  5,000  pounds  out  of  a  load  to  fill  a  double- 
deck  for  one  man  and  weigh  the  remainder  to  another  man. 
But  they  made  a  rule  in  the  exchange  and  enforced  it,  mak- 
ing the  penalty  a  fine  of  $25  if  they  cut  hogs  out  of  a  load, 
enabling  us  to  weigh  them  down  to  the  man  we  bought 
them  for. 

To  make  it  clearer,  we  bought  a  load  of  hogs — lights — 


With  the  Beef  Trust  235 

that  we  wanted  to  weigh  down  to  a  light-hogs  man,  with 
two  heavy  hogs  in  the  lot,  and  we  asked  leave  to  take  the 
two  heavy  hogs  out  and  weigh  them  to  a  different  man. 
The  party  selling  them  declined,  saying  he  would  be  fined 
if  he  did  it,  making  us  weigh  them  into  our  assorting  pen 
to  take  off  the  two  hogs.  We  have  stood  this  for  several 
months.  We  have  had  a  rule  for  years  that  all  the  hogs 
we  bought  be  weighed  at  the  center  scales,  as  it  was  next 
to  our  assorting  pen,  unless  we  bought  a  load  that  were 
uniform  and  would  do  to  weigh  down  to  the  party  we  were 
buying  for,  and  then  they  could  be  weighed  at  any  scales. 

AS  TO  WEIGHING  SCALES. 

A  few  weeks  ago  the  president  of  the  stock  yard  com- 
pany came  to  us  and  wanted  us  to  permit  them  to  weigh  at 
any  scales,  saying  the  exchange  demanded  it.  We  told  him 
we  did  not  think  we  could  do  it,  as  weighing  at  the  three 
would  get  hogs  faster  than  we  could  assort  them,  and  that 
we  would  have  2,000  hogs  in  our  assorting  pen  at  a  time, 
and  that  hogs  weighed  to  us  at  10  o'clock  in  the  morning 
we  would  not  have  assorted  by  2  in  the  afternoon.  Weigh- 
ing at  the  one  scale  we  could  assort  them  about  as  fast  as 
they  weighed  them  to  us,  and  in  that  way  our  shrink  would 
be  lighter,  or  we  could  approximate  about  the  difference 
between  what  they  weighed  in  and  what  they  weighed  out. 
But,  however,  to  please  the  president  of  the  stock  yard 
company,  we  told  him  we  would  try  it  and  weighed  at  all 
the  scales.  One  day  they  weighed  out  1,680  pounds  less 
than  they  weighed  in.  Our  commissions  were  $60  and  our 
loss  on  shrinkage  about  $65,  so  we  worked  hard  all  day  and 
we  had  $5  less  money  that  night  than  we  had  in  the  morn- 
ing. Another  day  we  had  1,300  pounds  shrink,  taking 
nearly  all  our  comrnissions ;  another  day  1,100  pounds,  an- 
other 960  pounds  and  another  700  pounds. 

So  we  found  we  had  either  to  quit  weighing  at  all  the 
scales  or  go  out  of  business.     No  honest  man  could  or  would 


236  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

put  out  hogs  for  more  than  they  cost,  and  when  our  mar- 
ket report  goes  out  $4.02%  for  the  top,  when  in  fact  the  top 
was  $4.10,  it  makes  it  very  hard  on  us.  Our  customer  in 
the  East  reads  the  top  price  here  $4,021/2,  and  he,  getting 
his  hogs  at  $4,071/2  and  $4.10,  might  think  we  are  dishonest, 
and  we  could  not  blame  him.  This  is  enough  at  this  time, 
and  you  will  no  doubt  hear  from  us  from  time  to  time.  It 
has  been  said  one  man  cannot  buy  and  sell  at  the  same  time, 
but  it  is  being  done  in  all  markets. 

What  we  will  endeavor  to  do  is  to  give  the  country  ship- 
per with  the  good  goods  the  market  price  relatively  to  other 
markets  and  also  to  this  market,  and  the  Eastern  customer, 
that  always  wants  the  good  ones,  the  goods  at  the  market, 
and  if  we  err  in  doing  it  it  will  be  an  error  of  judgment 
and  not  error  of  heart. 

"With  kind  regards  and  best  wishes,  we  beg  to  remain. 
Respectfully  yours, 

E.  R.  Shiel  &  Co. 

Per  Shiel.^ 

Indianapolis,  Sept.  19. 


NEW  TURN  IN  HOG  WAR. 


IT  PROVES  TO  BE  A  LIVELY  DAY  AT  THE  STOCK  YARDS. 


A  REPLY  IS  MADE  TO  THE  STATEMENT  OP  THE  R.  R.  SHIEL  COM- 
PANY BY  THE  OTHER  SHIPPERS  IN  THE  DAILY  STOCK  YARDS 
JOURNAL— ^'^RHODY^^  CLAIMS  THE  EXISTENCE  OF  A  TRUST 
HAS  REEN   ACKNOWLEDGED. 


The  trouble  at  the  stock  yards  between  the  firm  of  R.  R. 
Shiel  &  Co.  and  the  Live  Stock  Exchange  was  given  another 
chapter  yesterday  when  in  yesterday's  issue  of  the  Indian- 
apolis Daily  Liv©  Stock  Journal,  the  official  pAper  of  the 


With  the  Beef  Trust  237 

Union  stock  yards  and  horse  market,  appeared  the  follow- 
ing reply  to  the  statement  of  the  firm  of  R.  R.  Shiel  &  Co., 
printed  in  yesterday 's  Sentinel : 

NOTICE  TO  SHIPPERS  AND  DEALERS  IN  LIVE  STOCK. 

Indianapolis,  Sept.  19,  1898. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  firm  of  R.  R.  Shiel  &  Co. 
have  this  day  issued  a  circular  to  the  country  shippers  of 
stock,  said  circular  containing  statements  the  material  part 
of  which  is  utterly  false,  we  hereby  desire  to  state  the  sim- 
ple truth,  and  that  is  that  R.  R.  Shiel  &  Co.  have  demanded 
that  their  purchases  of  hogs  shall  all  be  weighed  on  a  par- 
ticular scale,  and  the  one  where  the  shippers  reweigh  nearly 
their  entire  purchases  and  have  a  preference.  The  avowed 
object  of  this  move  on  their  part  is  to  compel  the  hogs  they 
buy  to  lie  in  the  alleys  a  long  time  so  that  (as  they  ex- 
pressed it)  the  country  shippers  will  stand  the  shrink  in- 
stead of  the  buyers.  This  demand  the  salesmen  refused  to 
concede,  and  also  refused  to  sell  them  hogs  until  they  would 
accept  them  as  the  other  buyers  do,  namely,  to  be  weighed 
on  the  scale  most  convenient  ^ '  of  the  three  scales ' '  provided 
for  that  purpose  by  the  stock  yards  company.  This  action 
was  taken  purely  in  the  interest  of  the  owners  of  hogs 
put  in .  our  charge,  as  we  feel  that  it  is  our  duty  to  see 
their  interest  protected  in  every  reasonable  way.'  Re- 
spectfully submitted. 

H.  11.  Fletcher  &  Co. 

Jeffrey,  Fuller  &  Co. 

Helm,  Lewis  &  Co. 

Adin  Baber  &  Co. 

Tolin,  Totten,  Tibbs  &  Co. 

Stockton,  Gillespie,  Clay  &  Co. 

M.  Sells  &  Co. 

Middlesworth,  Benson,  Nave  &  Co. 

l*owell,  Beasley  &  Co. 

Clark,  Wysong  &  Yoris. 


238  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

J.  C.  Kershaw  &  Co. 

The  Capital  Live  Stock  Commission  Company. 

Dye,  Valodin  &  Co. 

W.  H.  Hoshal  &  Co. 

THE   SHIEL   company's   REPLY. 

To  this  statement  the  firm  of  R.  R.  Shiel  &  Co.  makes 
the  following  reply  in  the  form  of  a  letter  to  the  editor 
of  The  Sentinel: 

To  the  Editor — Sir:  Inclosed  find  admission  of  the 
trust.  It  explains  itself.  Our  reputation  is  well  estab- 
lished and  our  manner  of  doing  business,  and  not  for  mark- 
ing up  one  man  and  marking  down  another  after  a  bona 
fide  sale. 

We  do  say  that  we  are  glad  that  they  have  admitted 
that  we  take  care  of  our  customers,  and  when  our  friends 
from  the  country  intrust  us  with  their  business  Ave  guaran- 
tee they  will  have  no  reason  to  complain.  We  will  take 
as  good  care  of  our  country  customer  as  we  have  with  our 
eastern  customer,  and  deal  honestly  with  both.  We  will 
commence  weighing  at  6  o'clock  if  the  scales  will  open 
and  will  have  the  bulk  of  our  hogs  out  of  the  way  before 
the  exchange  market  opens.  We  g-uarantee  that  every  hog 
at  the  stock  yards  that  is  consigned  to  us  by  7  o  'clock  will 
be  weighed  and  account  of  sale  rendered  by  wire  not  later 
than  10  o'clock,  and  every  load  we  buj^  from  the  country 
shipper  we  will  see  that  they  are  weighed  in  an  hour,  or  not 
later  than  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  that  he  has  a  check 
two  hours  after  they  are  sold.  We  don't  have  to  wait  for 
a  market  to  weigh  our  hogs  up,  as  we  have  our  orders  by 
wire  the  night  before,  and  a  standing  order  from  John  B. 
Squire  &  Co.  of  Boston,  a  house  that  kills  about  as  many 
hogs  per  year  as  Kingan  &  Co.  do,  for  from  three  to  fifteen 
double-decks  per  day  if  the  market  is  favorable. 

Almost  half  of  our  hogs  are  bought  on  discretionary 
orders,  and  we  can  give  a  load  or  two  to  any  of  our  cus- 
tomers most  any  day  more  than  they  order.  They  have 
some  confidence  in  our  judgment.    Today  we  bid  $4.10  for 


With  the  Beef  Teust  239 

all  light  hogs  here.  The  hogs  we  bid  $4.10  for,  the  mar- 
ket report  shows  sold  at  only  $4,021/2-  This  is  the  honest 
trust  market.  Send  your  hogs  to  our  market  and  you  will 
be  well  taken  care  of. 

With  kindest  regards  and  best  wishes,  we  beg  to  remain 
respectfully  yours, 

R.  R.  Shiel  &  Co. 

Indianapolis,  Sept.  19.  Fer  Shiel. 


THE  COMBINE  BROKEN. 


R.  R.  SHIEL  CO.  WIN  A  VICTORY  AT  THE  STOCK  YARDS. 


To  the  Editor — Sir:  We  have  won  a  great  victory 
today  for  the  people  against  the  combine.  It  is  clearly 
demonstrated  that  the  few  cannot  combine  against  the 
many.  We  bought  about  half  the  hogs  in  the  yards. 
Bought  every  country  shipper's  hogs  that  came  in  with 
them  but  two.  They  were  all  consigned,  but  the  shippers 
took  them  away  from  the  trust  and  sold  them  to  us  them- 
selves. One  of  the  generals  in  command  of  the  combine 
had  eight  loads  consigned  to  him  and  we  got  five  of  them. 
The  $3  commission  has  come  to  stay.  Three  dollars  saved 
by  the  country  shipper  and  have  their  business  done 
promptly  is  quite  a  saving  to  them.  We  weighed  all  of 
our  hogs  straight  and  docked  them,  and  there  was  not  a 
load  of  them  that  was  not  weighed  within  twenty  minutes 
after  they  were  bought.  We  hire  plenty  of  help  to  do  the 
work,  while  the  combine  generally  has  but  one  man  to  a 
firm.  The  reason  of  the  slowness  of  weighing  the  hogs  that 
they  complain  so  much  about,  is  some  of  them  only  have 
one  man  to  the  firm  to  weigh,  and  they  have  cheap  men. 


240 


Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 


We  won't  have  a  cheap  man  or  a  slow  one  around  us.  We 
will  have  easy  sailing  from  now  on  as  the  country  ship- 
pers will  realize  what  we  are  doing  for  them. 

R.  R.  SniEL  &  Co. 
Indianapolis,  Sept.  20. 

The  following  are  the  quotations  of  the  Shiel  market. 
R.  R.  Shiel  &  Co.  against  the  combine.  Bought  of  the 
country  shippers  the  following  hogs  at  the  following  prices, 
the  shippers  taking  their  hogs  from  the  combine,  selling  as 
quoted  to  Shiel  &  Co. 

Shiel  wants  hogs  shipped  by  shippers  in  their  own 
name.  He  will  buy  all  that  are  so  shipped,  or  if  sent  to 
Shiel  &  Co.,  will  be  sold. on  their  merits  or  taken  by  him  for 
his  eastern  trade. 

Number.  Ad.  Bock.  Price. 

31  hogs 137  ...  $4.00 

20  hogs 171  ...  4.10 

14  hogs 170  ...  4.10 

2  hogs 175  ...  4.10 

8  hogs 136  ...  4.10 

29  hogs 207  ...  4.10 

20  hogs 172  ...  4.10 

88  hogs 141  360  4.10 

23  hogs Ill  ...  4.10 

88  hogs 140  240  4.10 

112  hogs 151    .        600  4.05 

37  hogs 179  ...  4.10 

35  hogs 179  120  4.05 

72  hogs 185  400  4.05 

80  hogs 132  ...  4.071/2 

58  hogs 210  40  4.07i£ 

43  hogs 190  200  4.O71/9 


With  the  Beef  Trust  241 

October  3,  1898. 

WANT  TO  COMPROMISE. 

BUT  RHODY   SAYS   HE  IS  INDEPENDENT  AND  WON^T   DO  IT. 


To  the  Editor — Sir :  Thirteenth  act  of  the  great  drama. 
How  they  are  trying  to  placate  us.  Sending  our  friends  to 
us  suggesting  a  way  out  of  the  dilemma.  A  very  warm  per- 
gonal friend  of  mine,  whom  I  believe  to  be  an  honest  man, 
met  me  Friday  and  admitted  that  all  that  I  have  charged 
is  true  as  to  the  thieves  and  corruption ;  said  he  was  among 
the  first  to  advocate  the  organization  of  the  exchange,  and 
believed  it  would  be  of  general  benefit  to  the  business,  and 
that  the  exchange  would  right  the  wrongs  and  help  wipe  out 
the  corruption.  He  admits  that  it  has  not  done  so  much  as 
he  thought  it  would  do,  but  said  to  me  that  I  had  under- 
taken a  great  task;  that  there  was  no  more  corruption  in 
these  yards  than  in  others ;  that  there  was  great  opportunity 
in  the  business  for  corruption,  and  a  great  many  corrupt 
men  were  in  it ;  that  it  was  a  business  that  tried  a  man 's  in- 
tegrity, and  the  temptations  were  so  great  that  men  became 
corrupt  in  this  business  that  would  not  without  this  tempta- 
tion before  them. 

He  was  trying  to  advise  me  to  let  up  and  effect  a  com- 
promise. They  would  let  me  weigh  on  the  scales  I  had  been 
weighing  on ;  they  want  to  keep  up  their  exchange  and  have 
me  join  it.  That,  I  told  him,  was  an  impossibility,  as  I 
would  not  belong  to  an  organization  that  had  as  corrupt 
men  as  some  of  the  men  in  it.  He  said  that  they  all  ad- 
mitted now  that  I  would  get  all  the  stock  from  the  country 
that  I  wanted,  but  their  only  hope  was  that  I  would  not  be 

[16] 


242  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

able  to  get  out  all  that  I  would  get  in.  I  told  him  that  did 
not  worry  me,  for  I  had  fifty  customers  or  more  for  whom  I 
had  done  business  in  the  last  twenty  years,  more  or  less,  in 
the  East  that  could  use  all  the  stock  that  came  here,  with 
the  exception  of  days  of  heavy  runs.  I  had  no  fears  but 
what  if  we  had  more  than  we  had  orders  for  our  local 
packers  would  buy  of  us  at  the  same  price  as  they  would  of 
others,  and  the  commission  we  charged  the  country  shipper 
would  be  at  least  $1  a  car  better  off  if  I  sold  them  at  2I/2 
cents  less.  Our  commission  would  be  only  one-half  of  what 
the  combine's  commission  would  be,  as  we  only  charge  for 
selling  the  same  as  we  do  for  buying.  He  said  to  me  that  I 
would  break  down  under  such  a  strain.  I  told  him  there 
was  no  strain  on  me  now,  and  there  had  not  been  much  from 
the  start.  They  only  shut  me  out  for  tw^o  days.  While  we 
had  not  been  getting  half  the  amount  of  stock  we  had  orders 
for,  our  customers  East  did  not  blame  us  for  it,  and  are  wil- 
ling to  fill  their  orders  elsewhere  until  we  are  in  shape  to 
serve  them.  I  said  we  had  gone  too  far  now  to  make  any 
compromise.  We  had  employed  a  number  of  men  to  take 
charge  of  the  receiving  department,  and  from  now  on  would 
be  better  equipped  than  any  firm  in  the  yard  to  receive  the 
stock  that  came  consigned,  and  to  handle  the  stock  the  coun- 
try shippers  sold  to  us. 

There  are  a  few  young  men,  for  whom  I  have  great  sym- 
pathy, that  belong  to  some  of  the  firms  that  come  to  me  and 
say  that  it  is  going  to  break  them  up  in  business ;  that  when 
they  have  to  sell  at  $3  a  single  deck  and  $6  a  double  deck 
their  expenses  would  eat  them  up.  They  admit  that  we  can 
do  it  cheaper  than  they  can,  as  we  get  a  double  commission. 

E.  R.  Shiel  &  Co. 

Indianapolis,  Oct.  2. 


With  the  Beep  Trust  243 

STOCK  YARDS  CONTROVERSY. 


MR.    SHIELDS    RESPONSE    TO    THE    STATEMENTS    MADE    BY    MR. 

RAUH. 


To  the  Editor  of  the  Indianapolis  Journal : 

In  your  paper  of  the  13th,  Mr.  Rauh,  president  of  the 
Stock  Yards  Company,  publishes  a  part  of  the  agreement 
which  was  written  by  him  in  a  room  selected  by  him  and  his 
committee.  My  lips  were  sealed,  and  now  that  he  has  pub- 
lished a  pai-t  of  the  agreement  I  hope  that  he  will  publish 
the  letter  dictated  by  me,  which  was  handed  to  him  to  sub- 
mit to  his  committee  as  they  were  going  to  the  room,  and 
also  the  part  of  the  agreement  which  I  dictated  at  my  house 
and  sent  to  him.     I  am  glad  that  he  has  unsealed  my  lips. 

I  have  never  denied,  and  do  not  now  deny,  that  there 
were  negotiations  for  settlement,  and  in  every  case  it  was 
solicited  by  Rauh,  his  traffic  manager  and  vice-president. 
The  $100,000  to  stop  the  building  of  the  stock  yards  was  not 
half  the  amount  claimed  by  my  company,  and  Avould  not 
pay  us  for  the  damage  done  us  and  our  customers.  This 
will  be  settled  in  court  hereafter.  Mr.  Rauh  well  knew  at 
the  time  why  he  and  his  associates  cut  out  a  small  part  of 
the  agreement,  and  did  not  publish  it  all.  One  of  the  agree- 
ments related  to  the  weighing  of  corn  in  place  of  measuring 
it  in  a  basket.  The  $100,000  was  largely  going  to  my  East- 
em  customers  that  I  had  bought  for  for  fifteen  to  twenty 
years.  They  were  all  damaged  when  the  resolution  was 
passed  against  us  by  the  exchange,  of  which  Rauh  is  a  mem- 
ber. There  w^ere  a  number  of  customers  that  were  associ- 
ated with  me  and  wanted  stock  in  the  new  stock  yards  com- 


244  Twenty  Years  in  Helt. 

pany.  The  way  it  leaked  out  that  there  was  to  be  a  new 
stock  yards  built  was  that  one  of  my  customers  came  here 
and  Eauh  got  hold  of  him  and  the  customer  told  it. 
Rauh  had  him  two  hours  in  his  office,  and  then  had 
him  in  the  Bates  House  twice  and  made  propositions 
to  him  to  give  his  orders  to  others  instead  of  to  me.  He 
took  the  proposition  home,  had  it  submitted  to  his  house; 
the  house  turned  it  down,  and  he  came  back  here  and  still 
wanted  to  get  in  the  stock  yards,  which  I  had  in  contempla- 
tion. I  promised  him  $10,000  stock  and  that  per  cent,  of 
interest  in  it.  He  wanted  more,  and  I  would  not  let  him 
have  it.  So  Rauh  saw  him  again,  and  he  has  now  quit 
doing  business  with  us.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  Mr. 
Rauh  and  his  associates  in  his  exchange  notified  Mr. 
Squire 's  buyer,  Mr.  Parsons,  when  he  came  here  to  take  our 
place,  that  if  he  did  any  business  with  us  the  other  commis- 
sion houses  would  riot  sell  him  anything.  I  want  to  ask  Mr. 
Rauh  if  it  is  not  a  fact  that  he  had  $775,000  of  the  $1,- 
000,000  water  common  stock,  held  in  escrow,  and  went  to 
New  York,  Pliiladelphia,  Pittsburg  and  Chicago,  and 
showed  that  this  stock  yards  paid  a  dividend  on  a  million 
bonds,  $500,000  preferred,  and  a  million  common  water? 

I  want  to  state  emphatically  that  Mr.  Erwin's  name  or 
anyone  else's  was  not  mentioned  during  our  negotiations 
with  Mr.  Rauh.  The  fact  is  no  one  now  interested  in  the 
Interstate  Stock  Yards  Company,  so  far  as  I  knov/,  was  in- 
terested in  the  other  company  that  I  propose  to  settle  for, 
with  one  or  tw^o  exceptions.  Rauh  is  largely  responsible  for 
these  gentlemen  embarking  in  this  enterprise,  while  there 
are  a  number  of  them  that  are  our  friends  and  did  not 
w^ant  to  see   us  crushed  by   the » combination   against   us. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  245 

There  was  one  of  our  Eastern  customers  that  complained  so 
much  about  their  treatment  here,  and  censured  us  for  stand- 
ing the  wrong  done  them  and  us  as  long  as  we  had  without 
exposing  it.  I  said  that  I  was  afraid  of  them,  and  it  was 
not  an  easy  matter  to  fight  such  a  combination.  The  reason 
they  are  so  provoked  about  the  Interstate  Stock  Yards  Com- 
pany is  that  the  gentlemen  associated  with  it  are  strong 
financially,  and  are  all  first-class  business  men. 

A  settlement  was  made  a  iew  years  ago  by  this  stock 
yards  company.  I  negotiated  partly  the  deal,  and  at  that 
time  there  was  something  like  $150,000  or  $200,000  paid; 
and  we  have  never  heard  much  about  it  in  the  newspapers. 
These  new  stock  yards  will  be  built  and  operated,  and  will 
furnish  everything  at  prices  returning  a  reasonable  profit 
on  the  investment.  It  is  silly  to  talk  about  stock  yards  hav- 
ing any  special  right  over  any  other  business. 

R.  R.  Shiel. 


MR.  SHIEL 'S  LETTER. 

IN     WHICH     HE     PROPOSED     TO     ACCEPT     FOR     HIS     ASSOCIATES 

$100,000. 


IT  IS  MADE  PUBLIC  FOR  THE  FIRST  TIME  BY  PRESIDENT  RAUH  OF 

THE    BELT    RAILROAD    AND    STOCK    YARDS    COMPANY MR. 

SHIEL  AGREED  FOR  THE  SUM  NAMED  NOT  TO  BUILD  OR  IN- 
TEREST HIMSELF  IN  NEW  STOCK  YARDS  IN  INDIANA  OUT- 
SIDE OP  LAKE  COUNTY — INTERESTING'  READING. 


The  attention  of  Mr.  Samuel  E.  Rauh,  president  of  the 
Union  Stock  Yards  Company,  was  called  yesterday  to  the 
published  statement  of  Messrs.  D.  P.  Erwin  and  R.  R.  Shiel 


246  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

in  the  Sunday  editions  of  The  Sentinel  and  Journal  pur- 
porting to  be  in  answer  to  a  statement  made  by  him  in  The 
Sentinel  of  the  previous  day,  and  he  was  asked  what,  if 
anything,  he  eared  to  say  in  reply  thereto.     Mr.  Kauh  said : 

I  have  no  desire  to  carry  on  a  newspaper  controversy 
with  either  Mr.  Erwin  or  Mr.  Shiel,  but  in  justice  to  my 
company  I  deem  it  proper  to  say  something  further  at  this 
time. 

In  his  statement  in  the  Journal  Mr.  Erwin  is  reported 
as  saying:  ''The  old  company  wants  to  buy  me  out  and 
is  attempting  to  worry  us  into  selling,  but  we  are  not  to  be 
bought."  I  wish  to  state  most  emphatically  that  there  is 
not  and  never  was  any  desire  on  the  part  of  the  Union 
Stock  Yards  Companj^  to  buy  out  the  new  company  or  the 
promoters  of  it,  and  in  view  of  what  has  been  said  by  Mr. 
Erwin  and  Mr.  Shiel  on  that  subject  I  will  now  state  the 
facts  concerning  the  proposition  made  by  Mr.  R.  E,.  Shiel, 
acting  for  himself  and  associates,  to  which  I  referred  in 
the  interview  with  me  reported  in  Saturday's  Sentinel.  In 
the  Sentinel  of  February  24  reference  was  made  to  a  new 
stock  yards  company  and  connecting  Messrs.  Squire  and 
Humphrey  with  it.  Mr.  Fred  F.  Squire  is  treasurer  and 
Mr.  F.  E.  Humphrey  is  traffic  manager  of  John  P.  Squire 
&  Co.  of  Boston.  On  that  day  a  reporter  called  to  see  me 
and  asked  me  about  the  matter.  I  told  him  I  knew  nothing 
about  it.  He  then  asked  me  if  there  wasn't  some  way  of 
getting  information  on  the  subject,  and  I  said  to  him  that 
if  Mr.  Squire  was  interested  he  could  likely  get  information 
from  him.  With  a  view  of  advising  myself  whether  there 
was  any  foundation  for  the  published  statement,  and  while 
the  reporter  was  still  in  my  office,  I  called  up  by  telephone 
at  Chicago  Mr.  Fred  F.  Squire  of  John  P.  Squire  &  Co. 
of  Boston  and  told  him  of  the  published  statement  in  the 
Sentinel,  of  the  reporter's  call  and  asked  him  whether  there 
was  any  foundation  for  the  statement.  In  answer  to  this 
he  asked  me  to  tell  him  all  there  was  in  the  published  state- 


With  the  Beef  Trust  247 

ment.  I  told  him  it  was  too  long  to  repeat  over  the  tele- 
phone at  that  time.  He  thei^i  asked  me  to  mail  him  a  copy 
of  the  Sentinel  containing  the  statement,  which  I  did  on 
that  day.  I  asked  him  when  he  would  be  in  Indianapolis, 
a^  I  would  like  to  have  a  talk  with  him.  He  said  that  he 
did  not  know  when  he  would  be  here,  but  would  write  me. 
He  brought  the  conversation  to  an  end  by  saying  that  he 
did  not  care  to  talk  about  the  matter  over  the  telephone. 

LETTER  FROM  MR.  SQUIRE. 

The  following  morning  I  received  from  Mr.  Squire,  by 
special  delivery,  the  following  letter : 

Frank  O.  Squire,  President.  Fred  F.  Squire,  Treasurer. 

John  P.  Squire  &  Co. 

No.  40  N.  Market  St, 

Transportation  Department. 

F.  E.  Humphrey,  Traffic  Manager,  Boston. 

Chicago,  III.,  February  24,  1899. 

S.  Rauh,  Esq.,  President  Union  Stock  Yards,  Indianapolis, 

Ind. : 

My  Dear  Sir — Referring  to  our  conversation  by  tele- 
phone this  morning,  as  per  your  request,  I  would  be  pleased 
to  meet  you  at  any  time  or  place,  preferably  at  Mr.  F.  E. 
Humphrey's  Chicago  office,  619  Rialto  building,  next  Mon- 
day morning. 

If,  however,  your  object  is  to  consult  with  me  in  regard 
to  Indianapolis  matters,  I  must  respectfully  decline  to  en- 
ter into  any  controversy,  as  both  Mr.  Humphrey  and  myself 
have  placed  the  matter  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  R.  R.  Shiel. 

Kindly  wire  me  at  above  address  if  you  decide  to  take 
the  trip. 

Yours  truly, 

Fred  F.  Squire. 

I  made  no  answer  to  this  letter.  The  same  day  that  it 
was  received  Mr.  R.  R.  Shiel  advised  me  that  he,  too,  had 


248  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

received  by  special  delivery  a  letter  from  Mr.  Squire  au- 
thorizing him  to  act  for  him. 

At  this  point  I  may  add  that  Mr.  Shiel  had  some  differ- 
ences with  the  commission  men  at  the  stock  yards  with 
which  my  company  had  nothing  to  do,  but  because  of  which 
he  (Shiel)  brought  suit  against  my  company  to  compel  the 
opening  of  the  scales  at  the  stock  yards  at  7  o'clock  in- 
stead of  8  o'clock  in  the  morning..  This  is  the  only  litiga- 
tion between  Mr.  Shiel  and  my  company. 

Before  this  talk  with  Mr.  Squire  over  the  telephone  a 
meeting  had  been  arranged  for  Saturday,  February  25,  at 
the  Denison  Hotel,  between  Mr.  Shiel  and  Mr.  Hansen, 
Colonel  Downing  and  myself,  with  a  view  on  my  part  of 
ascertaining  and  putting  in  substantial  form  what  Mr.  Shiel 
wanted. 

MR.    SHIELDS   PROPOSITION. 

This  meeting  was  held  at  the  Denison  Hotel  at  the  time 
appointed,  Mr.  Shiel  and  the  other  gentlemen  named  being 
present.  At  this  meeting,  in  talking  with  Mr.  Shiel  about 
the  matter,  he  said  that  there  was  something  more  than 
these  differences  to  be  considered,  and  that  there  were  other 
parties  interested,  and  he  then  began  to  talk  about  the  new 
stock  yards  company,  and  when  he  was  finally  asked  what 
he  wanted,  he  made  the  statement  embodied  in  the  follow- 
ing communication  to  the  Belt  Railroad  and  Stock  Yards 
Company  signed  by  him  and  delivered  to  me  at  the  time. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  249 

*'T.  J.  CuLiiEN,  Manager 

The  Denison. 

Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Erwin  Hotel  Co.,  Proprietors. 

February  25,  1899. 
Belt  Railroad  and  Stock  Yards  Company: 

Gentlemen — In  consideration  of  $100,000,  to  be  paid  by 
the  Belt  Railroad  and  Stock  Yards  Company,  to  be  paid 
as  follows:  $25,000  cash,  $25,000  in  one  year,  $25,000  in 
two  years  and  $25,000  in  three  years,  all  deferred  payments 
to  bear  4  per  cent,  interest,  the  undersigned,  who  is  em- 
powered for  himself  and  his  associates,  agree  not  to  build 
or  interest  themselves  in  any  stock  yards  in  the  State  of 
Indiana,  except  Lake  county,  and  further  agree  to  use  all 
their  efforts  in  advancing  the  interests  of  the  Belt  Railroad 
and  Stock  Yards  Company,  and  further  agrees  that  he  will 
maintain  a  market  at  the  Belt  railroad  and  stock  yards 
equal  to  the  Chicago  stock  yards  prices  on  hogs. 

This  proposition  or  agreement  to  hold  good  and  binding 
until  the  15th  day  of  March,  1899. 

R.  R.  Shiel. 

At  this  meeting  Mr.  Shiel  stated  in  his  very  positive 
way  that  this  proposition  was  final  and  that  because  of  the 
absence  of  one  of  his  associates,  Mr.  Erwin,  who  was  then 
in  Europe,  there  could  be  no  change  made  in  its  terms. 
The  proposition,  which  speaks  for  itself,  was  rejected. 


NO  CONSPIRACY. 


In  his  decision  in  the  so-called  Indianapolis  stock  yards 
conspiracy  case.  Judge  Artman  of  the  Boone  Circuit  Court, 
gave  both  sides  a  clean  bill  of  health,  declaring  it  to  be  his 


250  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

opinion  that  all  involved  were  honest.  It  is  well  for  the  In- 
dianapolis market  that  he  decided  the  case  as  he  did,  as 
there  is  no  way  of  computing  the  damage  that  would  have 
occurred  to  Indianapolis  as  a  live  stock  receiving  point  had 
the  judge  decided  that  there  was  any  basis  for  the  claim 
that  the  Indianapolis  stock  yards  officials  follow  the  prac- 
tice of  weighing  stock  light  to  the  commission  man  and  then 
weighing  them  heavy  to  the  purchasing  representatives  of 
the  packers. 

The  knowledge  that  a  toll  was  being  exacted  of  every 
consignor  of  live  stock  to  Indianapolis  would  have  been  a 
revelation  to  the  trade,  and  the  farmers  and  breeders  of  the 
State  would  speedily  have  turned  to  other  markets  where 
they  could  get  what  was  rightfully  coming  to  them.  In- 
dianapolis is  growing  steadily  as  a  live  stock  center,  but  a 
decision  in  favor  of  the  plaintiffs  in  this  case  would  have 
checked  development  and  set  the  market  back  ten  years. 

However,  the  decision  carries  with  it  one  regret — it 
marks  the  retirement  from  active  live  stock  business  of 
' '  Rhody  * '  Shiel,  probably  the  most  widely  known  live  stock 
man  in  Indiana.  In  his  brusque  and  picturesque  way  he 
has  done  much  for  Indianapolis ;  taken  part  in  the  develop- 
ment of  this  live  stock  market  from  the  very  first.  It  was 
but  natural  that  a  man  possessing  such  a  powerful  will  and 
determination,  so  emotional  and  impulsive,  should  encounter 
obstacles.  He  has,  for  many  years,  been  more  or  less  an 
Ishmaelite  in  the  trade,  his  hand  against  them  all  and  every 
man's  hand  against  him,  but  the  conspiracy  charge  could 
not  be  made  to  hold  in  the  end.  It  is  pleasing  to  note  that 
he  emerges  from  this  unequal  contest  with  some  of  the  fruit 
of  the  long  years  of  service  in  the  development  of  the  In- 
dianapolis market  still  in  his  possession.    • 


With  the  Beef  Trusj  251 

Saturday,  September  19,  1896. 

SPEECH  BY  R.  R.  SHIEL. 


HIS     OBSERVATIONS     OF     THIRTY-ONE     YEARS '     BUSINESS     EX- 
PERIENCE. 


THE  PRICES  OF  LIVE   STOCK   AND   GRAIN  DURING  THAT   PERIOD. 

THE    DIFFERENCE    IN    RAILROAD    RATES — EFFECT 

OF  THE   CRIME  OF    '73. 


R.  R.  Shiel  was  at  the  Union  Station  last  evening,  wait- 
ing for  a  train  to  Brooklyn.  He  was  going  there  to  make  a 
political  speech,  based  on  his  thirty-one  years'  experience  as 
a  buyer  of  live  stock  in  the  Indianapolis  market.  He  said 
that  his  object  included  a  demonstration  that  the  "crime  of 
'73"  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  fluctuation  of  prices  of 
farm  products.  He  had  handled  sixty  million  dollars' 
worth  of  the  products  of  the  Indiana  farmers,  and  is  now 
handling  two  millions  annually.  As  he  outlined  his  argu- 
ment, a  crowd  assembled  about  him  in  the  station,  and  final- 
ly he  took  out  his  speech  and  read  parts  of  it.  He  said, 
both  there,  and  later  at  Brooklyn: 

The  first  car  of  stock  that  ever  I  bought  and  shipped  was 
a  load  of  hogs  at  Elwood,  of  W.  H.  Harmon,  in  1865,  and  I 
paid  5  cents  a  pound  for  them. 

The  first  two  loads  of  cattle  I  bought,  I  bought  of  James 
Gwinn,  still  living  near  Pishersburg,  in  Madison  county,  the 
last  of  September,  1865.  I  paid  $4  a  hundred  for  them, 
and  they  weighed  about  fourteen  hundred  pounds.  I  ship- 
ped the  hogs  to  Cincinnati,  and  paid  $30  for  the  car.  I 
could  ship  the  same  car  today  for  about  $15.  I  loaded  the 
two  cars  of  Gwinn  cattle  at  Anderson,  and  I  biUed  them  to 


252  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

Buffalo.  John  Pence,  now  a  banker  in  Anderson,  was  the 
railroad  agent,  and  Quincy  Van  Winkle,  who  is  now  gen- 
eral superintendent  of  the  Big  Four,  west  of  Buffalo,  was 
an  errand  boy,  learning  the  telegraph  business,  and  helped 
load  the  cattle.  The  freight  on  the  two  cars  of  cattle  was 
$150.  I  can  ship  two  cars  today  from  Anderson  to  Buffalo 
for  about  $60,  less  than  one-half. 

In  1867  I  shipped  the  first  two  carloads  from  Moores- 
ville,  on  the  Vincennes  road,  that  were  ever  shipped  on  it.  I 
bought  two  carloads  of  cattle  of  Mr.  Alexander  Conduit, 
who  at  that  time  was  your  neighbor,  and  is  now  a  citizen  of 
Indianapolis.  I  paid. him  $4  a  hundred  for  them,  and  the 
cattle  weighed  1,450  pounds.  The  same  cattle  today  would 
be  worth  $4.25.  I  paid  $172  freight  to  Buffalo,  and  the 
freight  on  the  two  carloads  would  be  about  $72  today.  This 
was  before  the  ' '  crime  of  1873. ' ' 

COMPARISON  OF  PRICES. 

Today  I  had  my  bookkeeper  take  from  my  books  prices 
that  I  paid  for  stock  in  August  and  September  each  year 
since  1889,  when-  Harrison  was  inaugurated.  They  are  as 
follows : 

Year.  Hogs.  Cattle.  Sheep. 

1889.. .  $4  20  to  $4  40  $4  30  to  $4  50  $4  20  to  $4  40 
1890.. .     4  70  to    4  80      4  50  to    4  80      4  30  to    4  60 


1891.... 

5  60  to 

5  70 

5  50  to 

5  75 

4  20  to 

4  50 

1892... 

5  50  to 

5  85 

4  50  to 

5  00 

4  50  to 

5  00 

1893... 

5  75  to 

5  90 

4  00  to 

4  50 

3  50  to 

4  00 

1894... 

5  50  to 

5  85 

4  40  to 

5  00 

2  00  to 

2  50 

1895... 

4  75  to 

5  20 

4  75  to 

5  25 

3  00  to 

3  25 

1896.. .     3  10  to     3  40      4  25  to    4  75       2  50  to     3  00 

This  will  show  conclusively  that  the  so-called  ' '  crime  of 
1873"  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  prices  of  the  farm  prod- 
ucts. And  no  one,  who  wanted  to  be  honest  and  fair,  would 
claim  such  a  thing. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  253 

There  has  been  a  gradual  decline  in  the  railroad  rates 
ever  since  the  war,  while  the  farm  products  have  varied, 
which  the  above  figures  show,  from  year  to  year. 

In  1869  I  bought  thousands  of  hogs  here  after  the  fail- 
ure of  crops  here  in  1868  and  1869,  and  paid  10  cents  for 
them,  and  as  high  as  7  cents  for  cattle  and  6  cents  for 
sheep;  and  in  1872,  before  the  great  "crime,"  I  bought  the 
same  hogs  for  4  and  4%  cents,  and  the  same  kind  of  cattle 
at  4  cents,  and  sheep  at  3  cents;  while  in  1874  and  1875  I 
paid  7  cents  for  hogs,  5  cents  for  cattle  and  5  cents  for 
sheep,  three  years  after  the  "crime."  There  is  no  year, 
since  1865,  with  the  exception  of  1879,  that  hogs  in  Septem- 
ber were  as  low  as  they  are  now.  In  fact,  there  is  no  year 
they  sold  for  less  than  4  cents  in  August  and  September. 

Now,  as  the  figures  show,  we  have  had  high  prices  for 
hogs  since  1891,  both  of  hogs  and  corn,  which  have  caused 
the  farmers  to  turn  their  attention  to  producing  more  hogs, 
and  the  large  crop  of  corn  in  1895  enabled  the  farmers  to 
produce  hogs  in  larger  quantities  than  they  had  for  sev- 
eral years  back.  This,  with  new  competitors  that  have  been 
opened  up  in  Denmark  and  Russia  the  last  two  years,  which 
are  furnishing  England  and  Germany  with  great  quantities 
of  hog  products,  is  the  cause  of  low  prices  now.  There  is  a 
packing  house  in  Denmark  that  kills  about  three  thousand 
hogs  a  day,  that  three  years  ago  only  killed  a  few  hundred, 
and  they  are  great  competitors  in  England  and  Grermany,  of 
Kingan  's  and  all  American  exporters  of  hog  products. 

CROPS  IN   THE   SOUTH   AND   WEST. 

And  another  cause  for  the  low  price  of  hogs  this  year  is 
that  the  South  had  large  crops  of  corn  last  year,  and  the 
continued  high  prices  since  1888  have  caused  them  to  turn 
their  attention  to  raising  more  hogs  and  corn. 

This  year,  contrary  to  my  custom  for  twenty  years,  I 
have  not  bought  a  load  for  Louisville,  and  some  of  the  best 
customers  I  have  in  New  York  and  Baltimore  have  supplied 


254  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

themselves  in  Louisville  and  have  bought  very  few  here ;  in 
fact,  Louisville  has  been  shipping  hogs  here  to  Kingan  &  Co. 
They  have  never  had  the  receipts  there  that  they  have  been 
having  all  this  year.  They  are  raising  more  cdrn  and  less 
cotton  every  year.  The  last  few  years  I  have  bought  as 
fat  cattle  as  I  ever  bought,  that  came  from  Arkansas  and 
Mississippi,  that  were  fed  on  cotton  seed,  where  thirty  years 
ago  this  same  cotton  seed  was  burnt  up.  If  Mr.  Bryan 
would  post  himself  he  could  say  to  his  farmers  in  Nebraska 
that  the  great  market,  the  South,  that  twenty  years  ago  was 
the  largest  consumer  of  the  pork  and  corn  of  Nebraska,  is 
today  producing  corn  and  hogs  of  their  own,  sufficient  to 
supply  over  half  that  they  consume. 

Now,  as  to  the  price  of  wheat  and  corn.  In  1867  I  fed 
a  thousand  hogs  in  Hamilton  county.  I  bought  the  stock 
hogs  at  3%  and  4  cents  in  January,  and  bought  the  com 
at  27  to  33  cents.    This  was  before  the  ' '  crime  of  '73. ' ' 

Now,  there  has  been  no  year  since  1867,  until  this  year 
and  last  year,  that  corn  could  be  bought  in  Hamilton  county 
for  less  than  I  paid  for  it  in  1867 ;  and,  in  fact,  the  price 
has  generally  run  in  January  and  February  at  from  35  to 
40  cents.     In  1894  it  sold  up  as  high  as  55  and  60  cents. 

Now,  if  the  ''crime  of  73"  made  the  corn  sell  low  this 
year,  why  didn't  it  make  it  sell  low  in  1893  and  1894? 

As  to  the  wheat,  it  varied  in  price  from  1865  to  1873, 
from  a  dollar  to  $1.50.  Wheat  has  sold  as  high  as  $1.25 
and  $1.30  after  the  "crime  of  '73,"  in  1879  and  again  in 
1882.  The  low  price  of  wheat  is  an  easy  thing  accounted 
for.  We  have  had  two  of  the  largest  crops  ever  known  in 
this  country,  and  in  1890  Russia  produced  140,000,000  of 
the  surplus,  India  30,000,000  of  the  surplus,  Hungary  30,- 
000,000  of  the  surplus  ,and  in  1895  Russia's  surplus  was 
470,000,000,  India's  surplus  260,000,000  and  Hungary's 
surplus  130,000,000.  Now,  all  this  surplus  had  to  sell  in 
the  same  market  and  in  competition  with  ours. 

When  we  had  the  high  price  of  wheat  in  the  sixties  there 
was  no  wheat  raised  in  Dakota,  very  little  in  Kansas  and 


With  the  Beef  Teust  255 

the  West,  and  spring  wheat  sold  for  10  and  12  cents  less 
than  the  winter  wheat  did.  Now,  spring  wheat  sells  for  the 
same  price  as  winter  wheat.  The  great  wheat  country  of 
the  United  States  is  the  Dakotas,  Kansas  and  the  West, 
when  prior  to  the  seventies  they  did  not  raise  any  for 
market. 

If  Mr.  Bryan  would  tell  you  that  the  large  crops  in 
Russia,  Hungary,  India  and  the  Dakotas  are  what  made 
your  low  prices,  the  American  people  w^ould  have  more  re- 
spect for  his  judgment  and  integrity.  Why  don't  he  tell 
you  what  the  price  of  sheep  was  in  1892  when  they  sold 
at  5  cents  under  the  McKinley  bill,  while  in  1894  under  the 
Wilson  bill  they  sold  at  21/2?  He. has  not  told  the  little 
farmer  on  his  little  thirty  or  eighty-acre  farm  that  under 
the  McKinley  bill  in  1890  and  1892  that  he  got  I21/2  and  15 
cents  per  dozen  for  his  eggs;  15  and  20  cents  for  his  but- 
ter, and  50  per  cent,  more  for  all  his  poultry  than  he  is  get- 
ting now. 

I  have  dealt  so  much  with  you  for  the  last  thirty-one 
years  that  I  feel  that  I  am  almost  a  farmer.  I  feel  like  de- 
fending you  when  I  hear  the  charge  on  every  comer  that  all 
the  farmers  are  going  to  vote  for  the  Populist  crusade  can- 
didate. I  say  to  them  it  is  an  insult  to  the  farmer.  The 
farmer  is  as  intelligent  as  any  other  one  class  of  men,  and 
after  the  election  is  over  I  feel  sure  that  there  is  no  one 
class  of  people  that  is  more  interested  in  getting  an  honest 
dollar  for  their  product  than  the  farmer.  And  the  election 
will  prove  that  my  assertion  is  true. 

I  give  you  facts  and  figures  from  my  thirty-one  years  of 
actual  experience  in  business.  Bryan  has  been  advocating 
a  theory.  Theory  won 't  stand  against  facts  and  actual  ex- 
perience. 


256  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

LIGHT  ON  THE  CITY  COMPANY. 

The  Hon.  Augustus  Lynch  Mason,  in  his  interesting  re- 
port of  his  administration  of  the  Citizens'  Company,  in- 
timates in  prett}^  plain  language  that  the  City  company 
tried  to  ''hold  up"  his  company  for  big  money — tried  to 
"sell  out"  its  contract  to  his  company  at  a  dizzy  figure — 
tried  to  be  ''bought  off"  to  get  out  of  the  way — or  what- 
ever the  right  phrase  in  the  language  of  Wall  street  or 
Fifth  street  may  be.  It  seems  also  that  the  Citizens'  com- 
pany M^as  willing  to  "deal"  with  the  City  company  until 
the  demand  of  the  latter  became  too  high.  It  would  have 
been  "mighty  interestin'  readin'  "  if  the  Hon.  Augustus 
Lynch  Mason  had  given  us  the  exact  amount  that  his  com- 
pany was  willing  to  pay  to  the  City  company  and  the 
amount  that  the  City  company  demanded. 

It  has  been  in  the  air  for  a  long  time  that  a  "sell-out" 
was  arranged  at  one  time,  but  if  we  mistake  not  Mr. 
Mason's  statement  is  the  first  official  confirmation  of  the 
truth  of  the  rumor.  Vague  reports  have  been  circulated  as 
to  the  amount  of  money  that  was  to  be  given,  and  as  to  its 
precise  disposition — how  many  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars 
each  investor  of  his  name  and  of  a.  few  tens  of  dollars  in  the 
City  company  was  to  receive.  These  rumors  have  long  been 
floating  about  vaguely — doubtless  growing  somewhat  as  ru- 
mors do  grow — ^but  they  have  been  assiduously  denied,  in 
part,  at  least,  by  the  parties  in  interest.  Now  it  appears 
that  there  is  ample  and  substantial  basis  for  them.  It  is  a 
great  pity  that  Mr.  Mason  could  not  have  given  us  the  full 
details.  The  publication  of  them — if  they  are  what  his. in- 
timations imply  and  what  rumor  has  declared — would,  to  a 


With  the  Beef  Tkust  257 

certain  extent  at  least,  cause  a  reaction  of  sentiment  in 
favor  of  his  company.  The  people  of  Indianapolis  are  not 
interested  in  seeing  local  "financiers"  '^get  a  whack"  at  the 
Citizens'  company. 

The  people  of  this  city  were  brought  to  believe  that  the 
organization  of  the  City  company  was  made  in  entire  good 
faith,  and  principally  from  motives  of  city  pride  and  patri- 
otism. It  is  for  that  reason  that  it  has  had  the  support  and 
encouragement  of  the  press  and  of  good  citizens  generally. 
Had  people  supposed  that  the  City  company  was  a  Nickel 
Plate  or  West  Shore  enterprise,  that  it  was  formed  more  as 
a  trading  enterprise  than  with  a  view  to  the  actual  carrying 
out  of  its  ostensible  object,  there  would  have  been  far  less 
confidence  in  it  or  expectation  from  it.  But  if  Mr.  Mason 's 
intimations  can  be  taken  to  mean  what  they  seem  to  mean, 
if  the  rumors  that  have  long  been  current  are  really  well 
based  in  fact,  we  shall  have  to  modify  our  opinion  of  the 
City  company.  We  shall  have  to  think  that  the  motive  in- 
spiring its  formation  and  manipulation  was  not  so  much  the 
desire  of  benefiting  the  city  by  seeking  to  put  the  street  rail- 
way business  on  a  sound  and  rational  basis,  as  it  was  the 
hope  of  using  the  street  railway  situation  for  large  personal 
gain,  without  incurring  any  risk  of  loss — without  really 
making  any  investment. 

It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  some  of  the  men  in  the  City 
company  would  lend  themselves  to  a  Nickel  Plate  enterprise. 
But  it  has  been  stiU  more  difficult  to  believe  that  certain 
others  in  the  company  could  be  influenced  by  any  but  mer- 
cenary motives.  We  must  think  that  those  of  the  first  class 
were  not  fully  conscious  of  the  real  purpose  of  the  company, 
but  that  they  were  led  to  believe  that  while  the  enterprise 

[17] 


258  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

was  designed  to  make  money,  money  was  to  be  made  by 
legitimate  development  and  in  subordination  to  the  perma- 
nent interests  of  the  city. 

This,  you  understand,  was  at  a  time  when  agitation  was 
going  on  before  the  legislature,  when  Taggart  was  mayor 
and  seeking  to  get  a  bill  through  the  legislature  nine  years 
before  the  charter  would  expire,  which  I  will  explain 
later  on. 


Noblesville,  Ind.,  Friday,  Oct.  2,  1896. 

TO  THE  FARMERS. 

RHODY   SHIEL,   THE   WELL-KNOWN    STOCK   DEALER, 


DELIVERS  THE   BIGGEST   SPEECH   OF  THE  CAMPAIGN   AT   CICERO, 

IND.,     GIVING    FACTS    AND    FIGURES    FROM    PERSONAL 

EXPERIENCE  REFUTING  POPOCRATIC  THEORIES. 


Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen — I  have  been  in- 
vited here  tonight  to  talk  to  may  old  neighbors  and  friends 
on  the  political  issues  of  the  day.  I  am  not  going  to  make  a 
speech  to  you,  but  I  am  going  to  talk  to  you  as  one  neigh- 
bor should  talk  to  another.  My  opinion  is  that  the  issues 
today  between  the  two  great  parties  are  the  most  important 
probably  in  the  history  of  this  country.  Thirty-five  years 
ago  this  last  month  I  answered  to  the  call  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln for  300,000  men  and  went  forward  to  battle  for  the 
country's  flag,  enlisting  in  this  very  city.  I  felt  sure  that 
after  four  years  of  war  that  it  had  been  settled  by  the 
sword,  once  and  for  all,  that  States'  rights  had  been  shot 
to  death,  but  we  see  a  convention  assembled  recently  in  Chi- 
cago where  they  assailed  the  President  of  the  United  States 


With  the  Beef  Trust  259 

for  sending  troops  to  that  city  to  stop  riot  and  bloodshed 
and  destruction  of  property  and  to  enforce  the  law,  and 
also  criticised  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  for 
the  decisions  rendered  according  to  the  law  and  the  con- 
stitution in  the  light  in  which  they  saw  it.  The  Supreme 
Court  is  the  highest  tribunal  known  to  the  government,  and 
when  it  renders  a  decision  any  true  American  must  bow 
his  head  in  submission,  as  it  is  the  sole  judge.  I  didn't 
vote  for  Grover  Cleveland  and  I  didn't  believe  that  he 
ought  to  have  been  elected  President,  but  when  he  received 
a  majority  of  the  votes  he  was  my  President  just  as  much 
as  the  men  who  voted  for  him,  and  when  he  sent  the  troops 
to  stop  riot  and  bloodshed  and  protect  property,  I  felt  as 
proud  of  him  as  if  I  had  voted  for  him.  What  has  Grover 
Cleveland  not  done  that  he  or  his  party  claimed  he  would 
do  if  he  were  elected?  He  has  carried  out  all  pledges  of 
the  platform  to  the  letter  of  the  law.  The  Republican  party 
believes  that  the  principles  of  the  Democratic  party  inaug- 
urated into  law  would  not  be  the  best  thing  for  the  country, 
and  it  has  been  clearly  demonstrated  that  we  were  right. 
When  the  Democratic  convention  assembled  in  Chicago  they 
denounced  their  own  President,  and  every  supporter  of  the 
Chicago  nominee,  and  the  nominee  himself,  denounced 
Cleveland  and  his  entire  cabinet  for  carrying  out  the 
pledges  of  the  party  as  inaugurated  in  the  platform  in  '92. 
Since  I  have  come  to  your  city  this  evening  I  have 
learned  that  there  has  been  a  great  crime  perpetrated — a 
wonderful  crime — and  I  find  many  of  your  citizens  up  in 
arms  and  excited  over  the  crime.  (A  voice  from  the  floor, 
"What  is  the  crime?")  The  demonetization  of  silver  in 
'73.  (Another  voice,  "It  took  you  a  long  time  to  learn 
that.")  I  grant  you  that  is  true,  but  the  great  crime  was 
perpetrated  in  '73.  A  national  Democratic  convention  as- 
sembled in  '76,  another  in  '80,  '84  and  '88,  and  again  in 
'92,  and  not  one  of  these  Democratic  conventions  had 
learned  it,  so  you  ought  not  to  be  astonished  that  I  hadn't 
learned  it.    But  23  years  elapsed  and  a  convention  assem- 


260  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

bled  with  a  new  Moses,  and  they  discovered  the  ^eat  crime 
that  had  been  perpetrated  23  years  before,  and  the  records 
show  that  nearly  every  Democratic  Senator  and  member 
of  the  House  had  voted  for  the  crime.  What  was  the  crime  ? 
They  claim  it  was  the  stoppag^e  of  the  coinage  of  silver.  Let 
us  see  if  the  coinage  of  silver  was  stopped.  Since  1776,  the 
foundation  of  the  government,  up  to  1873,  there  had  been 
something  over  8,000,000  standard  silver  dollars  coined  in 
all,  and  after  that  time,  during  the  last  23  years,  there  has 
been  $442,000,000  coined,  or  about  57  times  as  much  in 
the  last  23  years  as  had  been  coined  in  97  years  previous, 
or  57  dollars  for  every  dollar.  New  anyone  can  readily 
see  that  the  coinage  of  silver  was  not  stopped  and  that  this 
great  crime  was  never  committed. 

They  tell  me  that  the  farmers  are  all  going  to  vote  for 
the  free  and  unlimited  coinage  of  silver,  but  let  me  show 
you  why  I  think  the  farmer  will  be  the  last  one  who  will 
vote  for  it.  The  silver  miner  is  a  farmer,  and  there  is  just 
one  difference  between  a  Colorado  farmer  and  an  Indiana 
farmer.  The  former  employs  cheap  labor  to  work  his  farm 
and  produce  silver  bullion,  while  the  Indiana  farmer  la- 
bors on  the  farm  himself.  Now  just  go  with  me  seeking  the 
markets  of  the  world  for  the  products  of  a  few  States.  I 
see  two  carloads  of  silver  bullion  loaded  on  a  train  in  Colo- 
rado and  start  East,  hunting  a  market;  they  come  to  Ne- 
braska and  take  on  two  carloads  of  corn,  then  to  Iowa  and 
take  two  cars  of  cattle,  in  Illinois  two  carloads  of  wheat, 
and  from  Indiana  two  carloads  of  horses ;  from  Ohio  they 
take  two  carloads  of  wool. 

Going  over  the  mountains  of  Pennsylvania  the  owners 
of  all  the  products,  riding  in  a  car  attached  to  the  rear  of 
the  train,  the  bullion  owner  asks  the  Ohio  man,  ''Where  are 
you  going  with  your  wool?"  The  Ohio  man  answers:  "To 
New  England.  I  understand  that  is  the  best  wool  market. ' ' 
Turning  to  the  Indiana  man,  he  asks:  "Where  are  you 
going  wdth  your  horses?"  Indiana  answered:  "To  Glas- 
gow, Scotland ;  that  is  the  best  horse  market  at  present. ' ' 
Of  the  Illinois  man  he  asks:    "Where  are  you  going  with 


With  the  Beef  Trust  261 

your  wheat  ? ' '  The  answer  was :  ' '  Paris,  France. ' '  Then 
he  asked  the  Iowa  man,  "Where  are  you  going  with  your 
cattle?"  "To  London,  England,  as  I  understand  it  is  the 
best  cattle  market,"  replied  the  Iowa  man.  Of  the  Ne- 
braska man  he  questions:  "Where  are  you  going  with  your 
corn?"  "To  G-ermany,"  said  he;  "it  is  the  best  corn 
market  at  present."  Then  the  Indiana  man  addresses  the 
Western  man  and  says:  "Mr.  Colorado,  where  are  you 
going  with  your  silver  ? ' '  The  answer  came :  "  I  will  leave 
you  at  Harrisburg ;  I  am  going  to  Washington.  Bryan  has 
been*  elected  President,  there  has  been  a  populist  congress 
and  a  populist  senate  elected  and  you  have  all  voted  for 
them  and  they  have  had  a  special  law  passed  for  me; 
every  53  cents'  worth  of  my  product  is  going  to  be  coined 
into  a  dollar  under  the  new  law.  You  have  to  hunt  the 
markets  of  the  world  for  your  product  and  you  have  to 
labor  with  your  hands  producing  your  product,  but  I  em- 
ploy cheap  labor  and  produce  mine,  and  gulled  you  folks 
into  voting  for  Bryan  to  enable  me  to  get  a  special  law 
passed.    How  do  you  like  it?" 

Then  the  farmers  began  to  see  what  a  great  mistake  they 
had  made.  After  the  Colorado  man  gets  his  53  cents  coined 
into  a  dollar  it  is  still  his  dollar  and  you  can't  get  any  of 
it.  I  see  Mr.  Bryan,  in  his  Madison  Square  speech,  said 
that  the  farm  products  had  gradually  declined  since  the 
"crime  of  '73,"  and  in  fact  everything  else  but  railroad 
rates.  Now,  he  was  either  ignorant  of  the  facts  or  he  wil- 
fully lied." 


Thursday,  October  15,  1896. 

ORATORY  AT  NOON-DAY. 


GROV^TH    OF    THE    MID-r»AY    MEETINGS    IN    MERIDIAN    STREET. 

The  noon  meetings  at  the  Sound  Money  League  Hall,  in 
North  Meridian  street,  have  grown  in  attendance,  and  the 
hall  is  crowded  daily.    George  W.  Julian  will  speak  at  noon 


262  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

tomorrow,  and  many  old  friends  are  arranging  to  give  him 
a  pleasant  reception. 

^  If,  for  any  reason,  the  appointed  sound  money  speaker 
fails  to  appear,  there  are  orators  in  abundance.  Rhody 
Shiel  was  one  of  today's  speakers.  "I  have  believed  from 
the  start,"  he  said,  "that  this  campaign  should  be  carried 
on,  not  as  a  Republican  campaign,  not  as  a  Democratic  cam- 
paign, but  as  an  American  campaign. 

' '  The  first  meeting  I  attended  this  year,  and,  in  fact,  the 
first  time  I  learned  of  the  danger  of  this  crusade,  I  went  to 
a  meeting  at  English's  Opera  House,  and  heard  my  long- 
time friend,  John  Kern,  say  that  free  silver  would  bring 
ruin,  and  a  panic  such  as  the  country  had  never  witnessed, 
and,  of  course,  I  believed  John.  Then,  I  listened  to  my 
friend,  Grreene  Smith,  and  he  strengthened  me  in  the  belief. 
And  last,  but  not  least,  if  I  had  had  any  doubt  in  my  mind, 
it  would  have  been  removed  after  I  heard  my  old  friend 
and  comrade.  Captain  Meyers,  who  convinced  me  beyond  a 
doubt  that  it  was  a  crusade  of  the  worst  kind,  and  that  no 
honest  man  could  be  a  party  to  such  a  crusade.  But,  later, 
T  find  that  my  friends,  Kern,  Smith  and  Meyers,  were  poor, 
weak  mortals ;  that  their  love  of  a  party  discipline  was  far 
more  important  to  them  than  national  honor,  sound  money 
or  love  of  country.  I  could  not  have  believed  it  possible 
that  my  old,  beloved  comrade.  Meyers,  could  have  deserted 
Hancock,  Sigel,  Sickles,  Black  and  Palmer — in  fact,  every 
captain  and  colonel  who  had  fought  in  the  war  for  the  old 
flag  and  glory,  are  all  joined  hand-in-hand  following  their 
leaders.  Our  own  captains.  Madden  and  McHugh,  and 
Cols.  McLean  and  Havens,  who  will  follow  me  here,  have 
joined  in  the  support  of  Palmer  or  McKinley  and  an  honest 
dollar.  Indeed,  T  don't  know  an  officer  above  a  corporal's 
rank  in  the  State,  who  served  in  the  last  army,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Meyers,  who  has  deserted  and  enlisted  under 
Coxey,  Bryan,  Tillman  and  Altgeld's  army." 


With  the  Beef  Trust  263 

MASSES  AND  CLASSES. 

Rhody  Shiel  spoke  yesterday  at  Carthage  in  the  after- 
noon and  in  Rushville  at  night.  At  the  latter  place  he  said : 
' '  I  can 't  find  out  where  the  masses  end  or  where  the  classes 
begin.'  I  do  not  know  which  0^9  I  belong  to,  and  if  I  belong 
to  the  classes,  when  I  got  to  be  a  member.  What  must  a 
man  be  worth  to  belong  to  the  classes?  Must  he  have  1,000 
acres  of  land,  300  acres,  100  acres,  50  acres,  20  acres  or 
10  acres?  Must  he  be  worth  $1  or  $2?  Here,  take  Farmer 
Ellis  out  here,  whom  you  all  know.  He's  worth  600  acres 
of  land.  Say  his  daughter  marries  one  of  his  hired  hands, 
and  the  father  gives  with  his  daughter's  hand  100  acres  of 
the  land  to  his  new  son-in-law.  Is  the  son-in-law  trans- 
ported all  in  one  night  from  the  masses  to  the  classes? 
Thank  God,  the  truth  of  the  matter  is  there  are  no  mases 
and  classes. 

''Who  are  the  anarchists."  said  Rhody,  again;  ''who 
were  they  in  the  Chicago  troi'.'^les  ?  They  were  not  the  men 
who  struck  for  better  pay.  They  were  not  the  honest  rail- 
roaders. They  were  the  men  whom  Governor  Altgeld  let 
out  of  the  penitentiary.  They  were  the  disciples  of  Till- 
man. I  am  against  these  anarchists.  They  kill  my  fellow- 
countrymen — the  policemen.  You  know  nearly  all  police- 
men are  Irish."  Rhody  says  the  silver  question  has  been 
talked  to  death,  and  that  patriotism  will  be  the  kejoiote  of 
the  remaining  days  of  the  campaign. 

Shiel  shows  a  letter  to  himself  from  the  Republican 
national  headquarters,  thanking  him  for  the  good  work  he 
is  doing,  and  informing  him  that  the  best  parts  of  his 
speeches  have  been  selected  and  printed  in  pamphlet  form, 
to  be  distributed  to  3,000,000  readers. 


264  Twenty  Years  if  Hell 

The  Indianapolis  Sentinel,  October  29,  1896. 

THE  LAST  CARD. 

The  Republican  managers  are  in  a  state  of  desperation. 
They  realize  that  they  are  completely  whipped  on  the 
money  question.  The  people  have  seen  through  their  falla- 
cies and  inconsistencies  offered  in  support  of  gold  mono- 
metallism, and  are  determined  that  they  will  have  no  more 
of  it.  The  effort  now  is  to  turn  the  issue  back  to  the  Civil 
War,  and  by  a  vigorous  waving  of  the  bloody  shirt  bring 
back  if  possible  the  silver  Republicans  who  have  become 
disgusted  with  Republican  slavery  to  the  money  power. 
The  following  is  a  copy  of  a  letter  now  being  sent  out  to  all 
parts  of  the  State  by  one  of  the  most  prominent  Republican 
leaders  in  this  campaign : 

My  Dear  Friend  and  Old  Neighbor — You  no  doubt  will 
be  surprised  to  receive  this  letter  from  me,  but  I  have  learnt 
that  you  have  been  talking  of  voting  for  the  silver  craze. 

Now  I  am  not  going  to  argue  with  you  as  to  the  right 
or  wrong  of  the  money  question,  as  you  or  I  don't  know 
much  about  the  government  finances;  I  am  sure  that  I 
know  but  very  little  about  it,  and  don't  suppose  you  know 
much  more  than  I  do.  I  do  know  the  so-called  demonetiza- 
tion of  silver  in  '73  has  no  more  to  do  with  the  low  price 
of  products  this  year  than  it  has  to  do  with  the  hog  cholera, 
in  one  neighborhood  and  another,  but  it  has  got  beyond  the 
money,  tariff  or  any  other  question  now:  it  has  got  to  the 
question,  Have  we  a  government,  a  President  and  a  Su- 
preme Court,  or  are  we  going  to  have  State's  rights  that 
I  had  fought  for  for  four  years,  and  thought  we  had  shot  it 
to  death,  and  have  it  inaugurated  again,  and  the  exiles  and 
scum  of  foreign  countries  come  here  and  run  this  govern- 
ment under  the  form  of  anarchy  led  by  Altgeld,  Tillman  and 
Coxey,  and  this  wild  man,  Bryan,  whose  only  recommenda- 
tion is  his  big  mouth  and  lots  of  wind  ?    God  forbid  that  we 


With  the  Beep  Trust  265 

should  ever  have  such  a  man  elected  President.  He  never 
did  a  day's  work  in  his  life,  like  you  and  I  have  done.  He 
undertakes  to  win  with  false  and  lieing  representations,  and 
appealing  to  the  passions  of  the  ignorant.  God  forbid  that 
such  an  intelligent  man  as  you  are,  and  one  who  came  loy- 
ally to  the  flag  in  time  of  trouble,  and  now  thirty-one  years 
after  the  war,  would  be  a  i)arty  to  dissectional  strife,  as  to 
arraying  the  masses  against  the  classes.  God  knows  we 
have  no  masses  or  classes.  You  knew  me  in  my  humble  log 
cabin  home,  and  if  my  position  in  life  has  been  changed,  I 
have  changed  it  myself,  and  the  same  avenue  is  open  to 
every  American  boy.  I  spent  thirty-five  years  of  my  life 
in  fighting  for  what  I  thought  was  right,  four  years  in  the 
war  and  the  rest  in  the  Republican  party,  and  to  my  mind 
there  never  was  in  the  history  of  the  country  such  an  im- 
portant election  as  this  one  for  the  perpetuation  of  the 
government.  I  hope  you,  as  the  honest  boy  I  knew  you, 
and  as  still  the  honest  man,  will  weigh  this  matter,  and 
weigh  it  seriously  before  casting  your  vote.  Think  of  the 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  lives  and  the  four  years  of  suf- 
fering in  the  late  bloody  war,  and  you  ^vill  be  a  party  to 
help  blot  it  all  out.  I  appeal  to  you  in  the  name  of  every- 
thing that  is  sacred,  your  wife,  your  children  and  the  chil- 
dren who  will  come  after  you,  to  help  stay  the  hand  of  the 
President,  the  court  and  the  government,  and  let  us  settle 
the  question  of  money  at  some  other  election.    Yours, 

R.  R.  Shiel. 

Mr.  Shiel  has  been  rated,  as  one  of  the  most  efficient  of 
the  Republican  speakers  on  the  money  question.  He  has 
made  dozens  of  speeches  on  that  subject,  many  of  which 
have  been  printed  in  the  Journal.  Many  Republicans  have 
said  that  he  understood  the  money  question  better  than  any 
speaker  they  had  except  Beveridge.  Now  he  confesses  that 
he  "knows  very  little  about  it,"  and  probably  in  confiden- 
tial conversation  would  admit  that  he  knows  nothing  at  all. 


266  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

Still  more  striking  is  his  closing  sentence :  ' '  Let  us  settle 
the  question  of  money  at  some  other  election. ' '  What  does 
this  mean?  As  plainly  as  words  can  say,  it  means:  "We 
are  wrong  on  the  money  question.  I  know  we  are  wrong. 
But  for  heaven's  sake  stay  with  the  party  and  we  will  get 
straight  hereafter."  And  why  does  he  ask  his  friend  to 
stay  with  the  party?  For  the  memories  of  the  Civil  War. 
He  objects  to  " dissectional  strife,"  but  waves  the  bloody 
shirt  and  tries  to  rouse  the  feelings  of  sectional  strife  of 
thirty  years  ago.  And  he  does  it  in  a  false  issue.  Gen. 
Harrison  and  Mr.  Shiel  have  entered  into  an  effort  in  the 
last  hours  of  the  campaign  to  save  the  Republican  party 
from  deserved  defeat.  Harrison  with  his  tongue  and  Shiel 
with  his  pen  make  a  strong  team.  Their  arguments  are 
identical.  Their  thought  flows  along  the  same  lines.  But 
they  will  not  succeed  in  deceiving  the  people.  The  money 
question  will  be  settled  at  this  election,  not  "some  other 
election." 


"RHODY"  SHIEL 'S  TALK. 

Following  is  a  verbatim  report  of  the  speech  of  Rhody 
Shiel: 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Fellow  Citizens— I  ask  your  forbear- 
ance for  a  few  moments,  -as  a  citizen  of  Indianapolis,  and  I 
trust  that  tonight  there  is  no  disturbing  element  in  this 
meeting  that  will  keep  the  most  humble  citizen  from  ex- 
pressing his  honest  opinion.  No  doubt  there  are  many  that 
expect  me  to  enter  into  a  personal  abuse  of  individuals  and 
the  press  which  has  vilified  me,  but  that  I  am  not  going  to 
enter  into.  Whatever  success  I  have  had  in  life  or  in  my 
business  I  have  gained  by  not  seeking  to  build  myself  up  by 
tearing  others  down.    Permit  me  now  to  state  my  views  on 


With  the  Beef  Teust  267 

the  question  that  is  agitating  the  people  of  Indianapolis.  I 
believe,  and  am  willing  to  stake  my  reputation  as  a  business 
man,  that  in  1901  if  the  honest  people  of  all  parties,  who 
have  the  best  interest  of  the  city  at  heart,  will  stand  firm 
they  can  let  a  franchise  then  at  2  cents  straight  fare  and  3 
cents  for  a  transfer  and  the  company  that  gets  the  fran- 
chise can  make  more  money  at  2  and  3  cents  than  the  John- 
sons did  ten  or  twenty  years  ago  under  their  mule  system. 
I  believe  the  people  ought  to  have  some  benefit  of  this 
grand  invention  of  electricity,  and  not  let  a  few  wealthy 
men,  who  can  organize  themselves  into  a  great  corporation 
for  the  purpose  of  controlling  the  public  press,  and  also  the 
State  and  city  legislatures,  and  they  get  all  the  benefits,  to 
make  themselves  still  richer,  while  the  poor  man  with  his  tin 
bucket  going  to  his  work  will  have  to  pay  the  same  fare,  5 
cents,  in  1930,  as  he  did  under  Johnson 's  mule  system  thirty 
years  ago. 

Is  the  poor  man  to  have  no  advantage  of  all  the  great 
discoveries  that  have  been  made  since  1865,  when  the  Citi- 
zens' franchise  was  let,  until  1931?  I  think  I  see  the  one 
and  two-cent  street  car  fare  in  twenty  years  from  now,  as 
common  a  thing  as  the  five-cent  fare  is  now.  The  working- 
man  today,  starts  to  work  with  ten  cents  in  his  pocket,  and 
pays  it  out  for  street  car  fare ;  if  they  all  stand  together, 
and  see  to  it  that  no  one  is  elected  mayor  of  this  city  or  to 
the  council  in  any  ward  from  now  until  1901  who  is  not  but 
a  true  friend  to  the  laboring  man,  and  one  who  has  been  an 
advocate  for  low  fares,  I  will  stake  every  dollar  that  I  have, 
and  my  reputation,  that  the  workingman  in  1902  can  start 
to  work  in  the  morning  with  ten  cents  in  his  pocket,  and  pay 
four  of  it  out  for  street  car  fare,  and  return  in  the  evening 
with  three  loaves  of  bread,  for  the  six  cents  he  has  saved  by 
the  reduction  of  the  fare,  and  the  street  car  company  will 
make  almost  as  much  money  under  the  low  fare,  as  by  the 
high,  as  twice  as  many  will  ride,  and  they  will  run  cars 
twice  as  often  as  they  do  now;  they  will  have  to  do  it  to 
accommodate  the  people. 


268  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

Why  let  a  franchise  in  ''93"  that  could  not  go  into 
effect  until  1901.  There  is  certainly  not  an  intelligent  man, 
that  wants  to  be  honest,  but  what  knows  that  we  can  get  a 
better  franchise  today  than  we  got  in  ' '  93  "  under  the  mid- 
night council,  and  knows  that  we  can  still  get  a  better  one  in 
1901,  than  we  can  today.  Might  as  well  buy  a  dress  for 
your  wife,  and  have  it  made  in  "93"  for  her  to  wear  in 
1901,  it  would  be  clear  out  of  style;  the  five-cent  fare  will 
be  out  of  style  in  1901,  everything  is  tending  to  lower  prices 
and  why  not  street  car  fare?  It  don't  matter  to  me,  who 
owns  the  street  car  tracks,  w^hether  they  live  in  Philadel- 
phia or  here,  and  don 't  think  it  matters  much  to  any  other 
citizen,  only  the  few  stockholders  and  their  friends.  I  am 
sick  of  this  howl  of  stop  thieves,  when  the  stealing  has  prob- 
ably been  as  bad  on  one  side  as  another,  and  the  people  hold- 
ing the  sack  for  both  sides. 

I  feel  it  due  to  myself  and  the  community  that  I  make 
some  reference  to  myself  being  howled  down  the  other  night 
in  a  mob.  It  is  the  second  time  in  my  life  that  I  have  been 
suppressed,  and  I  have  been  in  some  very  close  places,  I 
was  shot  down  at  Chickamauga,  by  Longstreet's  corps  and 
had  to  succumb.  I  attacked  a  mob  in  the  streets  here  a  few 
years  ago,  during  the  street  car  strike,  of  about  20,000  and 
succeeded  in  getting  a  hearing,  but  this  mob  of  a  few  hun- 
dred under  the  charge  of  the  city  officials  at  the  English 
Opera  House,  succeeded  in  suppressing  me,  when  if  they 
would  have  permitted  me  to  talk,  I  was  only  going  to  ask 
them  a  few  questions  and  that  was  on  a  point  where  I  had  a 
right  to  talk.  As  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Trade  since 
1867,  I  was  going  to  raise  the  point  that  there  never  had 
been  a  meeting  called  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  which  consists 
of  500  members,  or  of  the  Board  of  Governors,  which  con- 
sists of  forty,  and  that  that  resolution  was  only  gotten  up 
by  four  members  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  and  was  not  the 
expression  of  the  Board  o£  Trade. 


With  the  Beef  Trust  269 

The  Indianapolis  Sentinel,  April  22,  1898. 

PATRIOTIC  RHODY  SHIEL. 


HE  URGES  MEN  TO  VOLUNTEER — SCENES  AT  RECRUITING  ROOMS. 

Last  night  was  an  eventful  night  at  the  recruiting  sta- 
tion of  the  ''First  Volunteer  Indiana  Regiment"  on  N. 
Pennsylvania  street.  Patriotic  oratory  was  the  feature  of 
the  evening  and  the  room,  which  holds  several  hundred  peo- 
ple, was  jammed  full  most  of  the  time.  The  speakers  stood 
on  the  table,  where  the  recruting  rolls  are  signed.  Col.  B. 
C.  Shaw,  a  veteran  of  the  last  war,  and  G.  W.  Wal^moth  and 
Charles  Korbly,  jr.,  of  thp  younger  generation  made  patri- 
otic speeches  and  were  enthusiastically  received. 

There  was  a  stir  when  Rhody  Shiel  was  introduced  by 
Vic  Backus,  the  colonel  to  be  of  the  volunteer  regiment. 
' '  Rhody ' '  was  a  private  in  the  last  war.  ' '  I  enlisted  on  the 
day  I  was  eighteen  years  old, ' '  he  said.  ' '  We  have  got  war 
on  us  right  now  and  I  tell  you  if  you  don't  want  to  fight 
you'd  better  not  join  this  regiment  under  Vic  Backus.  Let 
me  tell  you  this :  It's  no  matter  now  whether  this  war  was 
brought  on  rightfully  or  wrongfully.  That's  something  you 
don't  have  anything  to  do  with  now,  but  right  or  wrong 
your  duty  now  is  to  stand  by  your  country. ' ' 

Great  cheers  followed  this  outburst.  Mr.  Shiel  con- 
tinned:  "I  have  said  that  I  wouldn't  enlist  in  this  war, 
but,  at  the  age  of  fifty-eight,  I  will  go  before  I  will  see  this 
flag  dishonored. ' ' 

Mr.  Backus  talked  briefly,  saying  that  it  was  the  pur- 
pose to  organize  a  regiment  that  would  be  ready  to  leave  in 
fifteen  minutes  after  permission  was  granted.  He  spoke  of 
the  great  honor  that  it  would  be  to  belong  to  the  first  regi- 


270  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

ment  of  Indiana  volunteers.  Enlistments  were  made  rapid- 
ly. In  order  to  incite  the  crowd  John  Murphy  stood  two 
young  boys,  who  had  enlisted,  on  the  table  and  told  the 
crowd  of  older  men  to  imitate  the  example. 

There  were  some  interesting  incidents  at  the  recruiting 
station  yesterday.  One  man,  seventy-eight  years  old  with 
gray  hair  and  drooping  form,  walked  up  to  enlist,  and  when 
Mr.  Backus  told  him  he  was  too  old  the  tears  rained  down 
his  cheeks.  He  acknowledged  that  he  was  forty-five  years 
old  when  he  was  mustered  out  of  the  union  army  in  1865. 

A  deaf  mute  walked  up  and  handed  in  a  carefully  writ- 
ten application,  giving  his  name  as  H.  C.  Anderson.  In  this 
petition  he  said :  ' '  The  crucial  test  of  valor  is  on  the  battle- 
field and  not  by  loud  mouthings  or  vain  vaporings.  You 
are  well  aware  I  am  deaf,  but  I  beg  you  will  leave  this  out 
of  your  consideration,  for  I  have  eyes  to  see  and  hands  for 
action  which  I  assure  you  I  will  endeavor  to  use  to  the  best 
advantage  within  my  power." 

He  seemed  greatly  disappointed  when  told  by  the  re- 
cruiting officers  that  his  services  could  not  be  accepted. 


(October  6,  1896.) 

MR.  SHIEL'S  NEW  SPEECH. 


ONE  OP  THE  UNIQUE  STUMP  EFFORTS  OP  THE  CAMPAIGN. 


SHOWS    WHY    FINANCIERING   SHOULD    BE    DONE   BY    MEN    WHO 
HAVE  A  TRAINING  FOR  IT. 


There  was  a  large  crowd  of  people  sitting  in  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Citizens'  Sound  Money  League  last  night. 


With  the  Beef  Tkust  271 

and  as  they  were  there  to  hear  politics  discussed  R.  R.  Shiel 
volunteered  to  entertain  them  for  a  while,  and  he  did  it 
royally,  too.  He  showed  the  folly  of  men  who  have  never 
studied  the  question  of  finance  attempting  to  put  their 
views  above  those  of  men  who  have  done  nothing  all  their 
lives  but  study  these  matters.  For  the  purpose  of  his  illus- 
tration he  spoke  figuratively. 

''Now,  say  I  am  a  free  silver  man,"  he  said.  "I  am 
not,  but  then  for  the  present  you  can  imagine  I  am,  and 
then  we  can  understand  each  other.  Well,  in  1897  I  was 
elected  to  the  United  States  Senate  to  succeed  Mr.  Voor- 
hees — that's  a  fact  and  you  needn't  smile  about  it — but  I 
resigned  soon  after  when  I  found  I  knew  nothing  about 
financiering  for  the  government  and  went  to  buying  hogs 
again.  You  know  I  am  a  good  hog  buyer.  I  stand  as  high 
as  a  hog  buyer  as  John  Sherman  does  as  a  financier,  and 
any  stock  man  in  the  country  will  tell  you  so. 

"Well,  that  part  is  settled.  I  was  elected  in  1897  and 
went  down  to  Washington  with  an  idea  that  I  knew  all 
about  this  thing  of  financiering  for  the  government.  I  was 
just  going  to  turn  things  over  and  see  that  laws  were  passed 
that  would  give  every  man  plenty  of  money.  Sure  enough, 
I  was  appointed  on  the  finance  committee  to  take  Mr,  Voor- 
hees's  place.  Well,  it  took  me  about  four  days  to  find  the 
committee  room  in  that  big  building  down  there  they  call 
the  Capitol,  but  what  more  would  you  expect  of  a  first-class 
hog  buyer  who  had  turned  government  financier  ?  At  last 
I  found  it  and  stumbled  into  the  room  one  day.  There  was 
John  Sherman,  who  has  been  in  the  financiering  business 
for  forty  years,  and  Senator  Hoar  and  Senator  Allison, 
who  have  served  almost  as  long  financiering  for  the  govern- 


272  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

ment.  Then  I  saw  G-eneral  Morgan,  of  Alabama;  he's  been 
financiering  for  the  government  for  a  long  time,  .too.  To 
make  it  short,  there  they  all  were — men  who  had  been  do- 
ing the  government  financiering  for  a  long  time— longer 
than  I  have  been  buying  hogs. 

'^Pretty  soon  there  came  a  rap,  rap,  rap,  and  John  Sher- 
man said  the  committee  would  proceed  to  do  the  govern- 
ment financiering.  Then  old  Senator  Hoar  got  np  and  said 
something.  Senator  Allison  had  his  say.  General  Morgan 
got  in  a  few  words  and  then  I  arose  with  all  the  dignity  I 
had  and  John  Sherman  said : 

"  'Mr.  Shiel,  the  new  senator  from  Indiana,  has  the 
floor.' 

"I  knew  that.  Then  I  told  them  that  they  were  all 
wrong ;  that  they  did  not  know  what  they  had  been  talking 
about;  that  for  all  these  years  they  had  been  financiering 
for  the  government  in  the  wrong  way,  and  that  what  they 
needed  was  a  little  advice  from  an  Indiana  hog  buyer. 
Then  I  proceeded  to  tell  them  how  much  more  money  the 
people  would  have  under  free  coinage  of  silver,  and  you  bet 
I  told  them  at  the  same  time  how  they  had  committed  the 
crime  of  1873  and  that  stuff.  About  this  time  'I  am  a 
Democrat'  .iumped  to  his  feet. 

**  'Mr.  Chairman,'  he  said,  'I  rise  to  a  point  of  personal 
privilege. ' 

"  'State  your  point,  sir.' 

**  'This  man  is  crazy,  and  I  move  that  we  have  a  com- 
mission set  on  his  sanity.' 

"  'Well,  the  commission  was  appointed  and  it  sat  on  me, 
and  it  sat  hard,  too.  The  next  thing  I  knew  I  was  in  an 
insane  asylum,  and  Avhen  I  was  told  why  I  was  there  I  got 


With  the  Beef  Teust  273 

to  thinking,  and  I  did  some  tall  thinking,  too.  '  Now,  Rhody, ' 
I  thought,  'you  Ve  got  no  business  here.  You  were  making 
money  buying  hogs  in  Indiana  and  you  were  known  as  one 
of  the  most  reliable  hog  buyers  in  the  country.  You  Imow 
nothing. about  doing  the  government's  financiering  and  you 
had  better  go  back  and  buy  some  more  hogs.'  I  sent  for 
John  Sherman  and  I  apologized  to  him  and  told  him  that 
I  was  a  good  hog  buyer,  but  that  I  didn  't  know  much  about 
financiering  for  the  government.  When  he  let  me  out  I  re- 
signed and  came  home,  but  I  thought  that  would  teach  me 
a  lesson. 

' '  Things  went  all  right  for  a  year,  then  one  morning  my 
little  colored  messenger  boy  came  rushing  into  my  office  at 
the  stock  yards  and  said : 

**  'Mr.  Shiel,  yo'  bettah  git  out  heah.  Dey's  some 
strange  men  down  theah  and  dey's  jest  buyin'  evahthing  in 
sight  and  yo'  won't  get  nothin'  ef  yo'  don'  hurry.' 

' '  I  jumped  up  and  rushed  out  to  the  pens  and  there  was 
old  John  Sherman  in  the  cattle  pens  buying  everything 
offered  and  paying  50  cents  more  than  the  market  price. 
And  there  was  Senator  Allison  just  paying  anything  asked 
for  sheep ;  and  hogs !  "Well,  Senator  Hoar  was  paying  $12 
a  hundred  pounds.  That  beat  me.  I  knew  they  couldn't 
sell  them  and  come  out  even,  and  so  I  walked  up  to  John 
Sherman  and  asked  him  what  he  meant  by  this.  He  said 
he  had  found  that  the  farmer  was  not  getting  enough  for 
his  stock  and  he  was  going  to  teach  us  stock  buyers  some- 
thing. Well,  us  stock  buyers  then  got  together  and  we  had 
a  sanity  commission  appointed,  and  those  men  were  sent  out 
here  across  the  river  where  they  keep  such  people.  Why, 
my  little  ten-year-old  messenger  boy  knew  more  about  hog 

[18] 


274  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

buying  than  those  big  senators  who  had  been  doing  the  finan- 
ciering of  the  country  for  more  than  a  generation.  After 
they  had  been  locked  up  a  short  time  they  concluded  that 
they  did  not  know  much  about  hog  buying  and  they  apolo- 
gized and  were  turned  loose. 

' '  Now,  that  is  just  how  the  matter  stands  today.  Here 
are  a  lot  of  little  two-by-four  politicians  and  hog  buyers 
who  want  to  do  the  financiering  for  this  government,  and 
they  don't  know  any  more  about  it  than  John  Sherman 
knows  about  buying  hogs,  and  that  is  precious  little,  I  can 
tell  you.  I  am  not  a  senator  any  more  and  John  Sherman 
has  quit  buying  hogs. ' ' 

Throughout  the  peculiar  speech  there  was  the  closest  at- 
tention, but  Mr.  Shiel's  remarks  were  broken  a  number  of 
times  by  the  laughter  of  his  listeners  at  the  odd  manner  of 
treating  the  subject.  When  Mr.  Shiel  closed  with  the  re- 
mark that  he  was  no  longer  a  senator  and  that  John  Sher- 
man had  quit  buying  hogs  there  was  a  long  and  loud  ap- 
plause, and  many  were  the  remarks  that,  odd  as  the  talk 
was,  it  was  a  good  illustration  of  the  point  made. 


September  24,  1896. 

A  LESSON  IN  CONFIDENCE. 


R.    R.   SHIEL   MAKES  A  PRACTICAL   ARGUMENT   AT   JAMESTOWN. 


Special  to  the  Indianapolis  Journal. 

JAMESTOWN,  Ind.,  Sept.  23.— Hon.  Charles  B.  Landis 
and  Roger  R.  Shiel  spoke  at  a  big  meeting  here  this  after- 
noon.    The  speech  of  Mr.  Shiel  was  something  novel  and 


With  the  Beef  Tkust  275 

interesting  in  the  line  of  a  political  argument.    He  said  in 
part: 

' '  I  have  been  invited  here  to  make  a  speech  to  you  today. 
I  don't  expect  to  make  a  speech,  but  I  come  to  talk  business 
to  you.  Thirty  years  ago  I  made  my  first  visit  to  your 
place.  At  that  time  this  part  of  Boone  county  was  a  wil- 
derness compared  to  what  it  is  now;  in  fact,  they  talked 
of  it  as  a  frog  pond  or  swamp  of  Boone  county.  I  came 
here  on  horseback  and  bought  about  three  hundred  hogs  of 
Mr.  Van  Ausdel,  then  your  neighbor,  living  about  a  mile 
and  a  half  east  of  here.  Permit  me  to  occupy  your  time  a 
few  minutes  to  show  you  the  difference  in  the  manner  of 
doing  business  then  and  now.  At  that  time,  when  a  trader 
went  to  the  country  to  buy  farmers'  stock,  he  had  to  carry 
with  him  the  money  to  pay  for  the  stock  at  the  scales,  and 
I  brought  with  me  about  $7,000  in  currency.  The  hogs 
were  driven  by  Mr.  Van  Ausdel  to  Indianapolis  for  me 
after  I  purchased  and  paid  for  them  in  currencj^  the  price 
being  $4.60  a  hundred.  My  next  visit  was  in  the  fall  of 
1868,  when  I  purchased  two  carloads  of  Van  Ausdel  & 
Lowry,  then  living  in  Lizton,  the  first  two  carloads  ever 
shipped  on  your  road,  then  the  I.,  B.  &  W.  We  loaded  them 
at  Mr.  Van  Ausdel's  farm  and  used  a  wagon  bed  for  a 
chute  to  load  them,  as  the  railroad  had  provided  no  load- 
ing pens.  There  has  been  no  year  since  that  I  haven 't  been 
buying  your  stock.  I  continued  to  come  here  and  bring  the 
currency  up  until  about  1874  or  1875,  when  the  trade 
changed.  I  have  often  carried  $25,000  to  this  and  Hen- 
.dricl^  county  to  pay  for  stock,  but  since  1875  my  checks 
have  been  going  all  over  your  county  and  Plendricks  and 
Montgomery,  and  when  I  purchase  stock  from  any  farmer 


276  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

I  have  given  my  check  for  it,  and  he  has  usually  carried 
the  check  home  and  deposited  it  in  his  bank,  and  I  under- 
stand that  all  local  buyers  now  give  their  checks  to  the 
fanners  when  they  buy  and  very  little,  if  any,  money  is 
paid  out  at  the  scales  where  the  stock  is  delivered.  I  re- 
member, two  years  ago,  that  I  purchased  $28,000  worth  of 
cattle  of  your  neighbor,  Crit  Clay,  who  lives  a  few  miles 
south  of  here  in  Hendricks  county,  and  I  gave  him  my 
check  for  it;  he  carried  the  check  home,  and  it  was  a 
week  before  he  deposited  it  in  his  bank  at  Danville.  At  the 
time  I  gave  the  check  for  $28,000  I  didn't  have  a  thousand 
dollars  in  the  bank  where  I  did  business,  but  the  same  day 
I  deposited  a  draft  in  my  bank  on  Tim  Eastman,  payable 
in  five  days  in  New  York,  and  I  don't  suppose  Eastman  had 
any  money  to  meet  the  draft.  I  happened  to  be  in  New 
York  when  the  Clay  cattle  arrived  there;  saw  Eastman 
killing  the  cattle  and  loading  them  on  a  vessel  to  ship  them 
to  Liverpool.  Mr.  Eastman  called  me  up  to  the  desk  and 
said,  'You  see  my  bookkeeper  is  making  a  thirty-day  draft 
on  Liverpool  to  take  up  your  draft  that  is  due  today. ' 

' '  When  the  thirty  days  rolled  around  and  the  draft  was 
due  in  Liverpool  Eastman  had  sold  the  cattle  in  his  butcher 
shops  that  he  had  in  Ireland,  England  and  Scotland,  and 
collected  the  gold  for  them  from  all  classes  of  people  in 
those  countries.  So  you  see  it  does  not  take  the  actual  cash 
to  be  paid  down  at  the  scales  to  carry  on  business  as  it  used 
to  thirty  years  ago.  Clay  had  confidence  in  me  when  he 
took  my  check  home.  Fletcher  had  confidence  in  me  when 
he  allowed  me  to  draw  the  Eastman  draft  and  gave  me 
credit  for  it ;  and  the  bank  in  New  York  had  confidence  in 
Eastman  when  it  allowed  him  to  draw  on  Liverpool  and 


With  the  Beep  Teust  277 

give  him  credit  for  it.  In  fact,  I  do  two  millions  of  busi- 
ness in  a  year  and  don't  handle  $500  in  currency,  while 
thirty  years  ago  I  had  to  pay  out  currency  for  all  the  stock 
I  bought. 

''I  can  remember  one  time  carrying  home  from  Pitts- 
burg $46,000  in  currency — this  was  in  1869 — and  in  1872 
a  number  of  times  carried  $25,000  and  $30,000  from  Cin- 
cinnati and  came  to  this  and  adjoining  counties  and  paid 
it  out  for  stock  at  the  scales. 

''Now,  I  am  not  going  to  talk  to  you  about  government 
finances,  but  I  can  see  readily  that  it  don't  take  as  much 
money  to  do  business  now  as  it  did  thirty  years  ago,  yet 
from  what  I  know  of  government  finances  there  is  as  much 
or  more  money  per  capita  than  there  Avas  thirty  years  ago. 
We  hear  it  every  day  that  there  isn't  enough  money  to  do 
the  business  of  the  country.  That  is  not  what  is  the  trouble. 
It  isn't  more  money;  it  is  more  confidence  we  want. 

''I  was  in  Fletcher's  bank  the  other  day  when  Mr. 
Fletcher  threw  down  his  balance  sheet  and  showed  me  that 
he  had  $3,600,000  on  deposit,  and  he  said  that  he  had  some- 
thing near  six  thousand  depositors.  I  asked  him  how  much 
he  had  loaned  out  of  that  deposit;  he  said  he  had  Siy^ 
per  cent,  of  it  in  bank.  I  asked  him  if  he  thought  that  was 
good  banking;  he  said  it  wasn't  profitable  banking  to  the 
bank,  but  the  $3,600,000  belonged  to  the  depositors  and  not 
to  him,  and  while  this  agitation  was  going  on  he  wasn't 
going  to  loan  another  man's  money  when  the  man  might 
come  in  any  day  and  call  for  it.  He  said:  'Some  of  it  is 
3^ours ;  you  are  liable  to  call  for  it  at  any  hour,  and  I  have 
it  here  for  you.  If  this  agitation  wasn't  going  on  we  could 
loan  our  deposits  safely  down  to  within  30  or  40  per  cent. 


278  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

Years  ago  the  manufacturer  used  to  borrow  money  and 
manufacture  in  the  fall  for  the  spring  and  in  the  spring  for 
the  fall,  but  now  our  best  manufacturers  only  manufacture 
to  fill  orders  and  don't  carry  any  stock,  and  they  don't  need 
the  money  they  used  to ;  there  is  not  the  demand  for  it  from 
the  manufacturers  and  we  are  glad  of  it,  because  we  prefer 
to  keep  the  money,  in  these  kind  of  times,  in  our  vaults. 
When  an  individual  leaves  the  money  on  deposit  he  leaves 
it  here  for  safe  keeping  and  wants  it  when  he  calls  for  it, 
and  these  kind  of  times  we  are  prepared  to  pay  it  out  to 
him  when  he  comes.  JMany  of  our  customers  have  deposited 
gold  and  they  expect  gold  when  they  come  for  their 
money.'  " 


SILVERITES  EXPOSED. 


R.  R.  SHIEL  SHOWS  UP  THE  HYPOCRISY  OF  THEIR  CLAIMS. 


Special  to  the  Indianapolis  Journal. 

LEBANON,  Ind.,  Oct.  7.— The  soldiers  and  sons  of  sol- 
diers of  Boone  county  held  a  big  meeting  here  last  night, 
with  R.  R.  Shiel,  of  Indianapolis,  as  the  speaker.  Mr.  Shiel 
said  in  part: 

"I  am  informed,  since  coming  to  your  city,  that  the 
Populist  orator  has  been  telling  you  that  your  county  has 
been  growing  poorer  since  the  great  'crime  of  '73';  that 
you  have  been  going  backward  instead  of  forward.  Now, 
there  is  just  about  as  much  truth  in  that  as  there  is  in  any- 
thing else  that  these  Populist  campaigners  tell,  from  Bryan 
down  to  the  government  financier  on  the  street  corner,  who 
has  his  wife,  keeping  boarding  house  and  has  not  done  a 


With  the  Beef  Tkust  279 

day's  work  for  five  years,  I  asked  your  auditor  to  give  me 
the  appraised  value  for  taxes  of  all  the  property  in  Boone 
county  in  1870  and  also  in  1896,  in  order  that  I  might  see 
whether  or  not  you  had  been  going  backwards/  I  find,  ac- 
cording to  his  figures,  the  appraised  value  in  1870  was 
$4,772,980,  and  in  1896  $14,706,695,  a  gain  of  $9,933,715  in 
twenty-six  years.  Now,  you  see  you  have  not  been  getting 
poorer,  and  that  looks  like  a  wonderful  increase  in  the  ap- 
praised value,  but  it  is  nothing  compared  with  the  increase 
of  the  silver  miners.  I  see  that  Senator  Stewart,  of  Nevada, 
has  made  from  his  silver  mines,  $40,000,000,  and  Senator 
Jones  $25,000,000.  Senator  Stewart  making  over  four  times 
as  much  as  all  the  increase  in  value  in  your  whole  county, 
and  Senator  Jones  more  than  twice  as  much.  Certainly  you 
can  see  why  they  are  for  the  free  and  unlimited  coinage  of 
silver,  and  I  have  no  doubt  if  Senator  Jones  or  Senator 
Stewart  were  to  come  to  Boone  county  to  make  a  speech,  or 
their  emissaries,  Mr.  Harvey  or  Mr.  Bryan,  they  would  tell 
you  that  you  have  been  getting  poorer  all  the  time.  I  saw 
an  account  in  the  New  York  World  (a  Democratic  paper) 
the  other  day  stating  that  there  were  thirty  silver  mine  own- 
ers who  had  made  $681,000,000.  Now,  while  the  farmers  of 
Boone  county  have  made  wonderful  progress,  it  is  nothing 
to  compare  with  the  progress  made  by  the  silver  mine  own- 
ers. If  Bryan  were  to  tell  the  farmers  of  Indiana  the  truth 
he  would  say  that  the  silver  section  was  the  enemy's  coun- 
try instead  of  the  East.  Every  carload  of  corn,  wheat,  cat- 
tle, sheep  or  hogs,  the  products  of  Boone  county,  goes  to  the 
enemy's  country  for  consumption.  Every  engine  pulling  a 
trainload  of  the  products  of  Boone  county  is  turned  East, 
hauling  the  same  for  consumption  into  what  Bryan  terms 


280  Twenty  Years  in  Hell 

the  enemy's  country.  Who  ever  heard  of  a  carload  or  a 
trainload  of  the  products  of  Boone  county,  or  any  other 
coanty  in  Indiana,  being  shipped  for  consumption  into  the 
silver-producing  territory?  When  I  first  came  to  your 
county  in  1867,  before  the  'crime  of  '73,'  you  had  but  five 
miles  of  gravel  road  running  out  of  this  city,  and  but  ten 
miles  in  the  entire  county.  I  understand  that  you  now  have 
something  near  200  miles.  You  then  rode  horseback  over 
corduroy  roads;  you  now  ride  in  carriages  over  gravel 
roads.  This  readily  proves  how  you  have  been  going  back- 
wards. If  Bryan,  Stewart,  Jones  and  Harvey  can  gull  you 
farmers  into  voting  for  Bryan  and  electing  him  president 
they  will  make  $100,000,000  in  the  next  twenty  years,  while 
you  will  be  in  great  luck  if  you  remain  where  you  are.  What 
you  want  is  a  home  market  for  your  product,  and  the  silver 
bullion  producer  doesn't  furnish  it." 


BRIGHT  OUTLOOK  FOR  TENNESSEE. 


INDIANA  MAN  THINKS  STATE  BEST  IN  UNION  IN  MANY  RESPECTS 


HHjLS  and  MOUNTAINS  V^ILL  BE  COVERED  WITH  SHEEP  IN  TEN 

YEARS. 


[Nashville,  Tenn.,  Banner.  Feb.  23,  1909.] 

Col.  Roger  R.  Shiel,  of  Indianapolis,  a  multi-millionaire, 
and  at  one  time  one  of  the  largest  stock  dealers  in  the  United 
States,  stopped  over  in  Nashville  Friday,  Saturday  and  a 
part  of  Sunday  on  his  way  from  Little  Rock,  Ark.,  to  Wash- 
ington. Col.  Shiel  is  one  of  the  fathers  of  meat  inspection 
and  the  pure  food  law,  first  under  President  Harrison.    In 


With  the  Beef  Trust  281 

1888  he  had  practical  charge  of  the  Palmer  House  and  was 
selected  by  President  Harrison  to  conduct  the  convention 
at  Minneapolis  in  1892.  He  is  also  the  author  of  ' '  Commis- 
sion on  Country  Life,"  a  brief  referring  to  farm  and  farm 
products,  which  has  a  wide  circulation.  Colonel  Shiel  thinks 
there  is  no  place  like  the  South,  and  speaks  optimistically 
of  the  future  of  the  South,  and  especially  of  Tennessee. 

''There  is  no  place,"  he  said,  ''in  the  Union  that  can 
come  nearer  diversifying  its  industries  than  Tennessee. 
You  can  raise  anything  on  a  farm  here  from  a  grapevine  to 
an  apple  tree,  and  do  it  better  than  anywhere  else.  The 
fact  is,  the  hen  in  Tennessee  will  lay  two  eggs  where  the 
hen  in  Iowa  or  New  York  will  lay  one,  and  with  eggs  selling 
at  thirty  cents  a  dozen  will  pay  for  herself  at  the  most  in 
thirty  days. 

' '  Middle  Tennessee  is  far  advanced  in  the  raising  of  cat- 
tle and  hogs,  and  is  the  only  state  in  the  South  that  is,  in 
this  respect,  with  the  exception  of  parts  of  Kentucky  and 
Northern  Missouri.  This  section  of  the  state  can  develop 
these  resources  still  further  by  proper  breeding. 

' '  Tennessee  has  a  great  interest  in  the  building  up  of  the 
waterways,  coal  and  iron  industries,  and  there  is  no  state  in 
the  union  that  can  develop  the  farm  industry  better  than 
Tennessee.  The  South  is,  however,  somewhat  behind  in 
the  use  of  scientific  agricultural  methods.  In  my  travels 
through  this  section  and  also  in  Cuba,  I  saw  the  farmers 
still  plowing  with  wooden  mould  board  as  they  did  in  Indi- 
ana sixty  or  seventy  years  ago. 

"Mississippi  has  got  possibly  a  larger  and  l>etter  body 
of  land  in  the  Yazoo  valley,  one-half  of  which  is  unculti- 
vated, than  any  other  State.    Arkansas,  too,  has  a  large  body 


282  Twenty  Yeaks  in  Hell 

of  uncultivated  land,  but  Little  Rock  is  one  of  the  liveliest 
towns  I  have  been  in  and  has  one  of  the  best  hotels  I  have 
visited  during  my  travels. 

'' Tennessee  is  fast  getting  away  from  her  slow,  ultra- 
conservative  methods,  and  in  the  near  future  she  will  be  in- 
viting people  to  come  here  from  all  over  the  world  to  help 
diversify  her  industries.  The  grape,  apple  and  fruit  peas- 
ants of  France  will  be  covering  the  mountains  of  East  Ten- 
nessee with  their  fruits.  The  greatest  possibility  in  Ten- 
nessee is  the  sheep,  and  it  is  also  true  that  as  much  blue- 
grass  can  be  raised  in  Tennessee  as  in  any  other  State  in 
the  Union.  Bermuda  grass  can  also  be  grown  with  success 
in  the  northern  portion  of  the  State  and  alfalfa  in  any  part 
of  it. 

"  It  is  my  prediction  that  in  less  than  ten  years  the  hills 
and  mountains  of  Tennessee  will  be  covered  with  sheep,  the 
same  as  in  West  Virginia,  where  twenty  years  ago  they  had 
none,  and  they  will  be  of  the  highest  grade.  Montana  is  a 
great  sheep  State  today,  but  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago  she 
had  very  few,  and  Tennessee  is  as  well  adapted  to  sheep 
growing  as  Montana.  You  can  breed  earlier  lambs  in  Ten- 
nessee than  in  any  Northern  State,  and  as  you  can  there- 
fore get  them  to  market  earlier  you  can  obtain  better  prices 
for  them.  The  lamb  can  be  marketed  at  least  two  months 
earlier  from  Tennessee  than  from  Montana,  I)akota,  Ohio 
or  West  Virginia,  as  there  are  only  a  few  months  in  the 
year  too  severe  for  the  young  lambs,  and  the  grass  will  grow 
practically  the  whole  winter  if  it  is  protected  from  shade 
and  properly  drained. 

' '  The  main  trouble  with  Tennessee  has  been  that  she  has 
been  unable  to  get  away  from  her  politics,  but  has  permitted 


Wjth  the  Beef  Tkust  283 

a  few  selfish  politicians  to  stunt  her  growth.  I  am  not  a 
prohibitionist,  but  I  am  against  brewery  rule,  and  if  we 
must  have  prohibition  to  control  the  breweries,  godspeed  it. ' ' 


RHODY  SHIEL'S  CHOICE. 


HE  IS  FOR  PERRY  S.  HEATH  FOR  UNITED  STATES  SENATOR. 


Rhody  Shiel  ha^  entered  the  senatorial  race.  No,  he  is 
not  a  candidate,  but  he  has  expressed  his  choice.  He  has 
named  his  man.  It  is  Perry  S.  Heath,  first  assistant  post- 
master-general. 

"Perry  Heath  is  a  man,"  said  Mr.  Shiel  last  night, 
**who,  when  you  T\T:nte  a  letter  to  him  asking  for  something, 
sits  down  and  tells  you  in  reply  that  the  matter  will  be  at- 
tended to  at  once.  And  it  is  attended  to.  You  get  results, 
and  it  is  results  you  want. 

''Now  with  your  man  Fairbanks  and  some  others  you 
have  there,  when  you  write  to  them  for  anything  you  get 
a  nice  little  note  telling  you  that  yours  of  a  certain  date  has 
been  received  and  contents  noted  and  the  matter  will  re- 
ceive attention  in  due  time,  and  that  is  the  last  you  hear  of 
it.  No  results.  Now,  which  kind  of  a  man  do  you  want — 
one  you  can  get  results  from  or  one  that  tells  you  'yours  re- 
ceived and  contents  noted?'  For  my  part  I  want  results. 
That's  why  I  am  for  Heath." 

R.  A.  BroT\Ti,  clerk  of  the  supreme  court,  was  standing 
near,  and  with  some  warmth  he  replied : 

**  We  don't  want  any  more  Ohio  domineering  of  Indi- 
ana politics.     We  have  too  much  of  that  already. ' ' 

"What  do  you  mean  by  that?"  a^ked  Mr.  Shiel. 


284  Twenty  Yeaes  in  Hell 

"Why,  Heath  represents  the  administration  and  he 
would  be  nothing  but  an  administration  candidate.  The 
trouble  with  you  is,  Rhody,  that  you  are  looking  after  the 
pie  counter,  and  nothing  else." 

''You  don't,  though,  do  you?"  retorted  Mr.  Shiel. 
"Why,  you  have  had  your  mouth  full  of  teats  for  fifteen 
years.  One  hasn  't  satisfied  you.  You  have  to  have  a  whole 
mouthful  at  the  same  time."  Bob  admitted  the  joke  was 
on  him. 

The  talk  of  Heath  is  beginning  to  be  commented  upon  as 
being  significant.  It  is  recalled  that  for  several  days  a  well- 
known  Republican  who  is  probably  nearer  to  Senator  Fair- 
banks than  any  other  man,  not  excepting  A.  W.  Wishard, 
has  been  throwing  out  hints  of  a  coming  dark  horse.  This 
talk  taken  in  connection  with  Rhody  Shiel's  position  is 
being  regarded  as  possibly  significant.  It  is  generally  be- 
lieved by  the  friends  of  Mr.  Shiel  that  he  gets  inspiration 
from  some  source  and  hence  his  talk  for  Heath  is  received 
with  more  than  amusement  by  the  more  thoughtful.  Rhody 
assures  his  hearers  (and  they  are  always  many)  that  his 
man  will  cut  a  considerable  figure  in  the  fight. 


The  Indianapolis  Sentinel,  Thuraday,  May  5,  1898. 

Ex-President  Harrison's  speech  at  Camp  Mount  on 
Tuesday  was  a  gem.  The  American  case  has  not,  to  our 
knowledge,  been  stated  more  concisely  or  more  strongly 
than  in  the  following: 

We  could  not  escape  the  compact.  Spanish  rule  had  be- 
came effete.  We  dare  not  say  that  we  have  God's  commis- 
sion to  deliver  the  oppressed  the  world  around.  To  the 
distant  Armenians  we  could  send  only  the  succor  of  a 
faith  that  overcomes  death,  and  the  alleviations  which  the 


With  the  Beef  Teust  285 

nurse  and  the  commissary  cdn  give.  But  the  oppressed 
Cubans  and  their  starving  women  and  children  are  knock- 
ing at  our  doors ;  their  cries  penetrate  our  slumbers.  They 
are  closely  within  what  we  have  defined  to  be  the  sphere 
of  American  influence.  We  have  said,  "Look  to  us,  not  to 
Europe,"  and  we  cannot  shrink  from  the  responsibility 
and  the  dangers  of  this  old  and  settled  American  policy. 
We  have,  as  a  nation,  toward  Cuba  the  same  high  commis- 
sion which  every  brave-hearted  man  has  to  strike  down  the 
ruffian  who  in  his  jjresence  beats  a  woman  or  child  and  will 
not  desist.  For  what  if  not  for  this  does  God  make  a  man 
or  a  nation  strong? 


From  the  Loiaisville  Times. 

RHODY'^  SHIEL  IN  LOUISVILLE. 


GIVEN   MUCH   ATTENTION   DURING  HIS   STAY  IN   THE  BIG   KEN- 
TUCKY CITY. 

The  Hon.  R.  R.  Shiel,  a  leading  cattle  and  hog  dealer  of 
Indianapolis,  is  in  the  city.  He  came  down  Saturday  night 
and  spent  Sunday  with  Mr.  Charles  Byrne  and  other  lead- 
ing stockmen.     He  will  return  home  this  evening. 

Mr.  Shiel,  who  is  better  known  as  "Rhody,"  was  for 
many  years  a  leading  politician  at  the  Indiana  capital,  and 
is  one  of  the  best-known  men  in  the  State.  At  present  he 
is  fighting  what  is  termed  the  ^ '  trust, ' '  and  is  buying  hogs 
for  Boston  packers.  He  is  meeting  with  great  success,  and 
most  of  the  Indiana  farmers  ship  to  him. 

Mr.  Shiel  is  well  pleased  with  his  trip  to  Louisville,  and 
he  was  given  much  attention  during  his  stay.  The  visit 
may  have  an  important  bearing  on  the  hog  market,  as  Mr. 
Shiel  is  probably  now  the  largest  buyer  in  the  West,  outside 
of  Chicago. 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Introductiou  3 

Biography  of  Roger  R.  Shiel 7 

Preface 13 

Mr.  R.  R.  Shiel's  Letter  to  the  President 21 

Commission's  Letter  to  Mr.  Shiel 29 

Mr.  Shiel's  Letter  to  the  Commission 29 

Live  Stock  in  Denmark,  etc 31 

Conditions  in  Ohio    33 

Conditions  in  Indiana    38 

Conditions  in  Illinois    54 

General  Observations 55 

Mr.  Skelton's  Letter 74 

Fruit  Question,  etc 76 

Letters  of  Individual  Expression 79 

Mr.  Shiel's  Second  Letter  to  the  Commission 113 

1.  The  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Co 114 

2.  N.  E.  Hollis  &  Co ." 132 

3.  Nelson  Morris  &  Co 144 

4.  Swift  &  Co 148 

5.  Hammond  &   Co 153 

6.  Schwarzchild  &  Sulzberger 154 

7.  Kingan  &  Co 156 

8.  Armour  &  Company 166 

9.  Cudahy  &  Company  * 167 

10.     National  Packing  Company 168 

Cincinnati  and  Louisville  Packers   169 

Conditions  in  the  South 175 

Prominent  Men  I  Have  Known  183 

Richard  Webber's  Sixtieth  Birthday    187 

Death  of  Richard  Webber 194 

A  Word  for  the  Soldiers 210 


(287) 


288  Index 

PAGE 

Letters  on  the  Trusts 212 

1.  To  Attorney-General  Moody  212 

2.  To  Governor  Chas.  R.  Deneen   215 

3.  To  Congressman  Crumpacker   217 

4.  To  Mr.  E.  C.  Swift 220 

5.  To  Hon.  J.  W.  Wadsworth   224 

Items  from  My  Newspaper  Scrapbook 227-285 

1.  R.  R.  Shiel  Shut  Out 227 

2.  Statement  by  Shiel  &  Co 228 

3.  One  Day's  Transactions 230 

4.  Who  These  Men  Are  231 

5.  Get  Markets  from   Shiel    232 

6.  Going  to  Start  Anew  233 

7.  How  to  Ship  Stock 234 

8.  As  to  Weighing  Scales   235 

9.  New  Turn  in  Hog  War 236 

10.  Notice  to  Shippers  and  Dealers  237 

11.  Shiel  Company's  Reply  238 

12.  Combine  Broken    239 

13.  Want  to  Compromise 241 

14.  Stock  Yards  Controversy   243 

15.  Mr.  Shiel's  Letter  245 

16.  Letter  from  Mr.   Squire 247 

17.  Mr.  Shiel's  Proposition   248 

18.  No  Conspiracy  249 

Speeches  by  Mr.  Roger  R,  Shiel 251 

1.  Thirty-one  Years'  Experience  251 

2.  To  the  Farmers    258 

3.  Oratory  at  Noonday   261 

4.  Masses  and  Classes   263 

5.  Rhody  Shiel's  Talk   260 

6.  Patriotic  Rhody   Shiel    269 

7.  Mr.  Shiel's  New  Speech   270 

8.  Lesson  in  Confidence  274 

9.  Silverltes  Exposed    278 

Mr.  Roger  R.  Shiel's  Interviews  and  Newspaper  Opinions.  .280-285 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.00  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


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